An EU-funded project has made marine microorganism data from anywhere in the world easier to access and also developed the research infrastructure and legal framework necessary for industry to fully tap the potential of microbial life in the oceans.

The project, called MICRO B3, has created a global snapshot of marine microbes and developed new tools to help scientists better understand marine microbial diversity. The tools include computational simulations to help identify new active compounds, alternative techniques to sample DNA and an interactive map of marine microbes around the world.

Understanding marine microorganisms

The results could benefit the healthcare, cosmetics and pharmaceutical industries, just a few of the sectors eager to take advantage of value-added molecules derived from the sea. For example, the harsh marine environment could yield hardy ingredients capable of surviving extreme industrial processes.

While marine microorganisms such as bacteria are seen as an untapped resource of biotechnological potential, accessing these molecules has however proved until now to be costly and difficult.

MICRO B3 project coordinator Frank Oliver Glöckner from Jacobs University Bremen, Germany explained:

 “Despite the importance of these marine microbes, knowledge about their diversity and their potential usefulness to the biotech and pharmaceutical industries has been limited.”

“A key part of this project has been to mobilise the global marine research community in order to obtain ocean samples and share data. Our success in this respect has been largely due to the engagement of a network of over 150 marine sites, who all contributed their samples and expertise. The final conference in Brussels (in November 2015) targeted policy makers and industry leaders, in order to promote uptake of the novel technologies we’ve developed to access marine knowledge.”

Tapping the ocean’s wealth

Project partners were able to sequence DNA from a diverse range of these microbial samples, helping researchers to assess the diversity of marine microbial life and also identify promising enzymes for industrial use. New tools to integrate genomic, environmental and ecological data were used to make these selections more accurate, and to help scientists determine the potential functions of unknown genes found in marine microbes.

The information was then made available through various existing databases that the project linked together to facilitate information sharing.

“Scientific cooperation will contribute towards better predicting, managing and mitigating future changes in the ocean,” Glöckner continued. “In addition, diverse results from, say, genome mining for anti-tumour compounds are becoming available.”

Operating procedures and standards were also established which will allow for marine data to be collected in an orchestrated way, consistent with national and international legal commitments. Glöckner said the standards are expected to support marine microbial biotechnology for industrial applications in the near future,

The UK was among 15 participating countries in the €11m+ MICRO B3 project, which was officially completed in December 2015.