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A global census of marine microbial life has been underway over the past several decades. During this period, there have been scientific breakthroughs in estimating microbial diversity and understanding microbial functioning and ecology. It is estimated that the ocean, covering 71% of the earth's surface with its estimated volume of about 2 × 1018 m3 and an average depth of 3800 m, hosts the largest population of microbes on Earth. More than 2 million eukaryotic and prokaryotic species are thought to thrive both in the ocean and on its surface. Prokaryotic cell abundances can reach densities of up to 1012 cells per millilitre, exceeding eukaryotic densities of around 106 cells per millilitre of seawater. Besides their large numbers and abundance, marine microbial assemblages and their organic catalysts (enzymes) have a largely underestimated value for their use in the development of industrial products and processes. In this perspective article, we identified critical gaps in knowledge and technology to fast-track this development. We provided a general overview of the presumptive microbial assemblages in oceans, and an estimation of what is known and the enzymes that have been currently retrieved. We also discussed recent advances made in this area by the collaborative European Horizon 2020 project ‘INMARE’., The success of using marine resources for the development of industrial products and processes depends on the manner they are screened, produced and tested on a larger scale.

Oikopleura longicauda is cosmopolit appendicularian species with a preference for warm and temperate waters. In order to determine genetic diversity of Oikopleura longicauda we sequenced 307 bp long fragment of subunit I of mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase (COI) of 34 individuals collected in July 2017 at a coastal station in South Adriatic. Our data revealed 4 groups of sequences with more than 16% of uncorrected p-distances indicating that Oikopleura longicauda is likely a complex of species with at least 3 different species existing in the Adriatic.