Exploring the bioactive potential of deep-sea microorganisms: A review of recent discoveries

The deep-sea ecosystem, one of the most extreme and underexplored environments, harbors a remarkable diversity of microorganisms capable of producing bioactive compounds with immense pharmaceutical potential. Deep-sea microorganisms, inhabiting depths beyond 100 m, have emerged as a particularly promising source of novel bioactive compounds due to their adaptation to extreme conditions such as high pressure, low temperatures, and absence of light. This review highlights recent advancements in the discovery and characterization of 440 novel natural products from deep-sea organisms (100-11,000 m) between 2020 and October 2024. It encompasses a diverse range of deep-sea fungi and actinomycetes, detailing their source organisms, collection depths, and geographic origins. Remarkably, 80 % of these compounds exhibit bioactivity, with nearly half demonstrating potent cytotoxicity at low micromolar concentrations against various human cancer cell lines. Despite the vast majority of deep-sea microbes remaining unexplored, their potential to yield unique natural products is immense. This review succinctly presents these discoveries, emphasizing their potential biological applications and underscoring the deep-sea as a frontier for future pharmaceutical research.