The marine environment has been, and continues to be, a fruitful source of novel chemical compounds that are not found in terrestrial and freshwater organisms. Many of these substances show potential biomedical applications, which could lead to development of new pharmaceutical products. Research on the utilization of natural products from marine o

Biotechnology may be defined as the application of scientific and engineering principles to the processing of materials by biological agents to provide goods and services (Bullet al. , 1982, p. 21) or as any technique that uses living organisms (or parts of organisms) to make or modify products, to improve plants or animals, or to develop microorganisms for specific use (OTC, 1988). In line with these broad definitions we can consider marine biotechnology as the use of marine organisms or their constituents for useful purposes in a controlled fashion. This series will explore a range of scientific advances in support of marine biotechnology. It will provide information on advances in three categories: (1) basic knowledge, (2) ap plied research and development, and (3) commercial and institutional issues. We hope the presentation of the topics will generate interest and interaction among readers in the academic world, government, and industry. This first volume examines chemical and biological properties of some natural products that are useful or potentially useful in research and in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries. One chapter describes a system for producing such substances on a large scale. Biotechnology incorporates molecular biology in order to go beyond tradi tional biochemical technology such as the production of antibiotic drugs from bacterial cultures in bioreactors. Development of the technology for production of antibiotics in this way resulted from fundamental advances in chemistry, phar macology, microbiology, and biochemical engineering.

This book presents the most recent information on the molecular genetics of marine organisms. It provides the reader a major thrust toward a better understanding of the present state of research on the molecular genetics of marine organisms.

Marine organisms have been found to be sources of numerous compounds that have applications in industry, agriculture, and medicine. This volume explores ongoing efforts to develop these natural products into commercially viable materials. The book deals with a range of topics, such as photobioreactors, industrial applications of chitosanases, carrageenans from red algae, anticoagulants from marine algae, anti-HIV compounds from red algae and biomass production as a source of energy by pyrolysis.

This book discusses petroleum spill bioremediation, the use of spectroscopy to identify microbial metabolic pathways, the detoxification of mercury by using recombinant mercury-resistant bacteria, and the use of manganese-oxidizing bacteria for bioremediation.

Presents information that can be useful to facilitate the aquaculture of a wide variety of food species. Operation of an economically successful aquaculture venture depends upon the complete life cycle of a species occurring in captivity. Possible solutions to how such complete control of life cycles of important food organisms might be accomplishe