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Our research efforts focus on providing basic research for the understanding and utilization of marine resources for human-made grand-challenges as well as providing ecological insights. The work spans across different scales from individual isolates, microbial communities to ocean phenomena. Three research areas are being explored:

Marine microbial enzyme discovery (Dr. Erik Borchert)

The transformation to a bio-based economy will largely depend on the availability of biocatalysts fit for the harsh conditions encountered in to-date industrial facilities. The natural aquatic environment already provides many habitats, that mimic extreme industrial conditions and thus exploiting these in a sustainable way for novel biocatalysts is most promising. In the EU Horizon project XTREAM we will mine deep sea sponge microbiomes, hydrothermal vents, arctic glaciers, acid mine drainages and hypersaline environments for novel extremozymes. Additionally, the Helmholtz InnoPool project AI MareExplore will expand the biodiscovery toolbox for the targeted extraction of extremozymes via the application of AI algorithms on large sequence datasets. Besides the applicability of extremozymes from aquatic environments an understanding of the ecological niche these enzymes stemming from is also imperative and always incorporated into our work.

Marine microbial diversity - Dr. Jutta Wiese

The treasure trove of marine microbial biodiversity in the ocean is largely unexplored, but could help to address urgent global and societal challenges. Thus, challenges encompass for example environmental pollution by microplastic and human health related issues, such as increasing antimicrobial resistances of infectious agents. Our strain collection comprises more than 5,000 taxonomically classified bacterial and more than 500 fungal isolates from diverse marine habitats like sponges, algae, bryozoan, corals, mussels, fishes, and deep-sea sediments. Knowledge about phylogeny of isolates allows us to detect and describe new species in context to their respective habitat and to characterize their host-associated lifestyle. Furthermore, taxonomically classified bacteria enable target-oriented bioassay-based research focusing on members of promising candidate genera e.g. for the hydrolysis of polyethylene terephthalate (PET).

Marine bacteria might be an ecological reservoir for the transfer of antibiotic resistance genes to human pathogenic bacteria. Therefore, we analyze bacteria from a wide range of different taxa, from different habitats, and from different isolation time points. As example, students from the WASCAL (West African Science Centre on Climate Change and Adapted Land Use) project are investigating the antibiotic resistance of bacteria associated with commercially relevant fishes from Cabo Verde versus Baltic Sea fishes considering that global warming increases the risk of antibiotic resistance.

Marine plastic biofilms – composition, functions, applications - Dr. Erik Borchert

Nano- and microplastic particles steadily accumulate in the marine environment. For the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, more than 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic with an estimated weight of 80.000 tons have so far accumulated and with no end in sight. Furthermore, man-made polymers can now be found in our food chain and it is not clear whether uptake with the daily nutrition can be harmful. Therefore, removal of (micro-) plastics from the marine environment and decreasing further microplastic pollution is a major and very urgent challenge for our society. While the removal is far from being a trivial task, it offers, at the same time, the opportunity for the development of novel, bio-based technologies and innovative bioprocesses. Our main goals within the PLASTISEA consortium are the delivery of novel enzymes and microorganisms for the development of original and innovative strategies for the removal of synthetic polymers (micro- and nanoparticles) from the marine environment.