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Marine Viruses: the Beneficial Side of a Threat

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Abstract

Marine viruses are ubiquitous, extremely diverse, and outnumber any form of life in the sea. Despite their ecological importance, viruses in marine environments have been largely ignored by the academic community, and only those that have caused substantial economic losses have received more attention. Fortunately, our current understanding on marine viruses has advanced considerably during the last decades. These advances have opened new and exciting research opportunities as several unique structural and genetic characteristics of marine viruses have shown to possess an immense potential for various biotechnological applications. Here, a condensed overview of the possibilities of using the enormous potential offered by marine viruses to develop innovative products in industries as pharmaceuticals, environmental remediation, cosmetics, material sciences, and several others, is presented. The importance of marine viruses to biotechnology should not be underestimated.

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Acknowledgments

This work was financially supported by the Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (CONACyT), México, for grant 102744 (to ASP). We would like to extend a special thank to Dr. Jeremy R. Young (Earth Sciences, University College London) and Dr. Michael G. Rossmann (Hockmeyer Hall of Structural Biology, Purdue University) for providing the scanning electron microscope image of a Emiliania huxleyi cell and the high-resolution three-dimensional structure of the recombinant PstDNV capsid, respectively. We also would like to thank Trinidad Encinas of the Laboratorio de Referencia, Análisis y Diagnóstico en Sanidad Acuícola (CIBNOR, Hermosillo).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratorio de Referencia, Análisis y Diagnóstico en Sanidad Acuícola, Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas del Noroeste S. C. (CIBNOR), Calle Hermosa 101. Col. Los Ángeles, 83106, Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico

    Arturo Sánchez-Paz & Fernando Mendoza-Cano

  2. Bioenergetics and Molecular Genetics Lab, Centro de Investigación en Alimentación y Desarrollo (CIAD), Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico

    Adriana Muhlia-Almazan

  3. Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, Functional Ecology, 27570, Bremerhaven, Germany

    Reinhard Saborowski

  4. Biochemistry Laboratory, Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas del Noroeste (CIBNOR), La Paz, Baja California Sur, Mexico

    Fernando García-Carreño

  5. Department of Biodiversity and Molecular Ecology, IASMA Research and Innovation Centre, Fondazione Edmund Mach, Via E. Mach 1, 38010, San Michele All’Adige, Trento, Italy

    Gaurav Sablok

Authors
  1. Arturo Sánchez-Paz
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  2. Adriana Muhlia-Almazan
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  3. Reinhard Saborowski
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  4. Fernando García-Carreño
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  5. Gaurav Sablok
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  6. Fernando Mendoza-Cano
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Correspondence to Arturo Sánchez-Paz.

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Sánchez-Paz, A., Muhlia-Almazan, A., Saborowski, R. et al. Marine Viruses: the Beneficial Side of a Threat. Appl Biochem Biotechnol 174, 2368–2379 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12010-014-1194-6

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