Abstract
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.