title: Marine viruses: the beneficial side of a threat.
abstract: Marine viruses are ubiquitous, extremely diverse, and outnumber any form of life in the sea. Despite their ecological importance, viruses in marine environments have been largely ignored by the academic community, and only those that have caused substantial economic losses have received more attention. Fortunately, our current understanding on marine viruses has advanced considerably during the last decades. These advances have opened new and exciting research opportunities as several unique structural and genetic characteristics of marine viruses have shown to possess an immense potential for various biotechnological applications. Here, a condensed overview of the possibilities of using the enormous potential offered by marine viruses to develop innovative products in industries as pharmaceuticals, environmental remediation, cosmetics, material sciences, and several others, is presented. The importance of marine viruses to biotechnology should not be underestimated.
authors.affiliation: Laboratorio de Referencia, Análisis y Diagnóstico en Sanidad Acuícola, Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas del Noroeste S. C. (CIBNOR), Calle Hermosa 101. Col. Los Ángeles, 83106, Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico, asanchez04@cibnor.mx.
authors.forename: Arturo
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sánchez-Paz
authors.forename: Adriana
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Muhlia-Almazan
authors.forename: Reinhard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Saborowski
authors.forename: Fernando
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: García-Carreño
authors.forename: Gaurav
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Sablok
authors.forename: Fernando
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Mendoza-Cano
mesh_terms: D059001:Aquatic Organisms / Q000502:physiology*; D001709:Biotechnology / Q000379:methods* / Q000639:trends*; D018406:Virus Physiological Phenomena; D014780:Viruses