Microbial Frontiers in the MENA Region: Ecology and Biotechnology

Microbial ecology in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region represents a rapidly evolving frontier at the intersection of environmental science, public health, and biotechnology. The region’s unique landscape—marked by extreme aridity, high salinity, elevated temperatures, and diverse ecological zones—shapes microbial communities that are distinct from those found in other parts of the world. Despite this rich microbial biodiversity, research within MENA has often been hindered by limited resources, fragmented efforts, and a primary focus on human health concerns or individual pathogens. There is a growing recognition of the urgent need to understand not only the diversity and ecological roles of regional microbiomes but also their adaptive strategies to environmental stresses such as water scarcity, pollution, and land degradation. Recent global advances in metagenomics, multi-omics, and synthetic biology have only begun to be translated to the MENA context, underscoring considerable gaps in knowledge and the untapped potential for novel discoveries.

This Research Topic aims to catalyze a comprehensive understanding of microbial diversity, function, and potential across MENA’s extreme and varied environments. By bringing together fundamental studies of microbial biogeography, adaptation, and ecosystem services with cutting-edge technological and biotechnological approaches, the topic seeks to reveal microbial contributions to environmental resilience, sustainable agriculture, public health, and industrial innovation. Key objectives include enabling integrative microbiome research across diverse habitats, elucidating microbe-driven biogeochemical cycles under climate change, and fostering interdisciplinary collaborations that leverage the region’s unique natural laboratories for global benefit. A central goal is to identify and harness microbial capabilities for addressing regional challenges such as food and water security, bioresource valorization, pollution remediation, and surging antimicrobial resistance.

Contributions are welcomed that investigate microbial life in MENA’s deserts, saline zones, marine habitats, agricultural soils, and urban environments, deploying standard or innovative methodologies in basic or applied contexts. Manuscripts highlighting region-specific sampling, multi-omics integration, and biotechnological adaptation are especially encouraged. We invite articles addressing, but not limited to, the following themes:

• Microbial diversity, biogeography, and ecosystem function in MENA biomes

• Extremophiles and specialized enzymes/metabolites for novel applications

• Soil and rhizosphere microbiomes for crop improvement under arid and saline stress

• Wastewater microbiology and decentralized sanitation for resource recovery

• Bioremediation strategies for hydrocarbons, heavy metals, and emerging pollutants

• Petroleum biotechnology for industrial innovation in oil and chemical sectors

• Marine microbiomes and their contribution to the blue economy

• Microbial mediation of nutrient cycling under climate change scenarios

• Surveillance of antimicrobial resistance and the One Health approach

• Advanced multi-omics and bioinformatics tailored to regional challenges

• Synthetic biology and systems approaches for sustainable bioengineering

• Microbiological interventions for climate mitigation (carbon capture and utilization)


Please note that Microbiotechnology does not consider descriptive studies that are solely based on amplicon (e.g., 16S rRNA) profiles or comparisons of nucleic acid extracts (e.g., metagenomics), unless they are accompanied by a clear hypothesis and experimentation and provide insight into the microbiological system or process being studied.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Review
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Review
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: Biotechnology, Climate Change, Bioenergy, Microbial Diversity, Bioremediation, Environmental Pollution

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.