Claudia Sorlini

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EDITORIAL Open AccessMicrobiology can make a greatcontribution to the new direction of globalpoliticsClaudia SorliniKeywords: Global politics, Climate change, Non-renewable energy sourcesOur planet is currently being challenged by climate changewhich is causing severe consequences on the environment,economy, and social wellbeing. The main cause is the useof non-renewable energy sources, used in all anthropogenicactivities. To this emergency, the problems of pollution areadded. In particular, plastics that invade the planet are themost blatant phenomenon, and the nonsensical use of nat-ural resources including water is also highly responsible.The United Nations Organization is so convinced of theneed for all countries to face the transition towards a sus-tainable development model that it has dedicated to thisaim the 2030 Agenda launched in 2015. The 2030Agenda is articulated in the "17 Sustainable Develop-ment Goals" (https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelop-ment/sustainable-development-goals/). The EuropeanParliament, with the recently approved Green Deal strat-egy (2020), is also showing a strong commitment in thesame direction (https://ec.europa.eu/info/strategy/prior-ities-2019-2024/european-green-deal_en). Changing strat-egy is possible only under certain conditions, one ofwhich, absolutely necessary, is represented by an extraor-dinary effort to support basic and applied scientific re-search. Unfortunately, this support is in short supply inmany countries.In this context, microbiology can make a great contribu-tion to the new direction of global politics. The processes,of which the microorganisms are the driving force, requirea lower energy input than similar processes carried outchemically. In addition, these processes take place accord-ing to natural pathways, thus producing marketable andwaste products that can re-enter the biogeochemical cy-cles (Cavicchioli et al., 2019; Timmis et al., 2019).Currently, microorganisms are used in a large numberof activities both in primary and secondary production(biocides, bioinoculants, food processing, improvementof food quality, production of bioactive molecules, bioe-nergy, cell factories, plant biofertilizers, etc.) and ser-vices (soil bioremediation, water purification, etc.).Research could certainly broaden the fields of microbialapplication and improve efficiency and product quality.For instance, it is estimated that an increase in the effi-ciency of symbiotic nitrogen fixation can result in sav-ings of 1067 million dollars per year in the USA alone inthe purchase of nitrogen fertilizers and a drastic reduc-tion of greenhouse gas emissions (Seshadri et al., 2015).A similar rationale could be applied to pesticides, bio-plastics, production of bioactive molecules for food,nutraceuticals, pharmaceuticals, etc.Greater investment should also be directed to researchinto harmful and pathogenic microorganisms, given theimportance they can assume, as in the case of the pan-demic we are now experiencing dramatically. In general,however, greater attention is needed towards the worldof infinitely small organisms, but which, as demon-strated, for better or worse, can be decisive in the life ofhumans, animals, plants, and the planet.Collaboration between researchers is essential for un-derstanding the complexity of natural and anthropogenicphenomena. Consequently, Annals of Microbiology hasdecided to be available in the open access form since2020. The editorial board was inspired by the same mo-tivation this journal had when it was born 80 years ago.© The Author(s). 2020 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License,which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you giveappropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate ifchanges were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commonslicence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commonslicence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtainpermission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.Correspondence: ClaudiaSorlini@fondazionecariplo.itUniversità degli Studi di Milano, Milan, ItalyAnnals of MicrobiologySorlini Annals of Microbiology           (2020) 70:64 https://doi.org/10.1186/s13213-020-01609-1It offered a space in which researchers could makeopenly known their scientific acquisitions and contacteach other to access information and knowledge. Thisfunction has never failed, not even in the years of theSecond World War, during which the journal continuedto be published.In 1999, the journal, born in 1940 as Annali di Micro-biologia (Fig. 1), took on its current name and a moremarked international dimension. For 80 years, it hasgiven thousands of researchers the opportunity to pub-lish, thanks also to the painstaking and competent workof several thousand reviewers whose generous supportnever failed. Together with the current Editor-in-Chief, Iwould like to express my gratitude and my warmestthanks to them and to the members of the internationaleditorial boards who have succeeded one another, withthe hope that the journal will continue to satisfy thegreater and greater need for excellent quality andinnovation in science.Author’s contributionsThe author read and approved the final manuscript.Competing interestsThe author declares that she has no competing interests.Received: 7 November 2020 Accepted: 11 November 2020ReferencesCavicchioli R, Ripple WJ, Timmis KN, Azam F, Bakken LR, Baylis M, BehrenfeldMJ, Boetius A, Boyd PW, Classen AT, Crowther TW, Danovaro R, ForemanCM, Huisman J, Hutchins DA, Jansson JK, Karl DM, Koskella B, MarkWelch DB, Martiny JBH, Moran MA, Orphan VJ, Reay DS, Remais JV, RichVI, Singh BK, Stein LY, Stewart FJ, Sullivan MB, van Oppen MJH, WeaverSC, Webb EA, Webster NS (2019) Scientists’ warning to humanity:microorganisms and climate change. Nat Rev Microbiol 17:596–586.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41579-019-0222-5https://ec.europa.eu/info/strategy/priorities-2019-2024/european-green-deal_en.Accessed 7 Nov 2020.https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-goals/.Accessed 7 Nov 2020.Seshadri R, Reeve WG, Ardley JK, Tennessen K, Woyke T, Kyrpides NC, Ivanova NN(2015) Discovery of novel plant interaction determinants from the genomesFig. 1 The first volume of the journalSorlini Annals of Microbiology           (2020) 70:64 Page 2 of 3of 163 root nodule bacteria. Sci Rep 5:16825. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep16825Timmis K, Cavicchioli R, Garcia JL, Nogales B, Chavarría M, Stein L, McGenityTJ, Webster N, Singh BK, Handelsman J, de Lorenzo V, Pruzzo C, TimmisJ, Ramos Martín JL, Verstraete W, Jetten M, Danchin A, Huang W, GilbertJ, Lal R, Santos H, Yup Lee S, Sessitsch A, Bonfante P, Gram L, Lin RTP,Ron E, Ceren Karahan Z, Roelof van der Meer J, Artunkal S, Jahn D,Harper L (2019) The urgent need for microbiology literacy in society.Environ Microbiol 21:1513–1528. https://doi.org/10.1111/1462-2920.14611Publisher’s NoteSpringer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims inpublished maps and institutional affiliations.Sorlini Annals of Microbiology           (2020) 70:64 Page 3 of 3

Microbiology can make a great contribution to the new direction of global politics

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Microbiology can make a great contribution to the new direction of global politics

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