%0 Journal Article %J Marine Biotechnology %D 2011 %T The Importance of Chitin in the Marine Environment %A Souza,C. P. %A Almeida,B. C. %A Rita R Colwell %A Rivera,I. N. G. %X Chitin is the most abundant renewable polymer in the oceans and is an important source of carbon and nitrogen for marine organisms. The process of chitin degradation is a key step in the cycling of nutrients in the oceans and chitinolytic bacteria play a significant role in this process. These bacteria are autochthonous to both marine and freshwater ecosystems and produce chitinases that degrade chitin, an insoluble polysaccharide, to a biologically useful form. In this brief review, a description of the structure of chitin and diversity of chitinolytic bacteria in the oceans is provided, in the context of the significance of chitin degradation for marine life. %B Marine Biotechnology %P 1 - 8 %8 2011/// %G eng %R 10.1007/s10126-011-9388-1