An Overview of the Antimicrobials from Marine Bacteria

The marine environment comprised huge biological diversity and remained the least explored location for prospecting novel antimicrobial agents. Marine bacteria, in specific, are considered an essential source of therapeutically valuable biologically active secondary metabolites. As bacteria are ubiquitous, they evolve with a certain unique mechanism to thrive under stressful conditions like competitive habitats, much-varied temperatures, light, pH and pressure. In these harsh environments, surprisingly, bacteria in these regions produce many natural bioactive compounds with unique molecular scaffolds and structural complexity. This untapped biological resource may become a source for the cure of several crises facing the world in the 21st century, such as the emergence of multi and pan-drug-resistant bacterial and fungal pathogens and pandemic and epidemic outbreaks of viral infections. This chapter discusses the role of natural secondary metabolites from marine-derived bacteria as a tool in the fight against emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases.