Applications of cyanobacteria in biotechnology

Abstract

Summary Cyanobacteria have gained a lot of attention in recent years because of their potential applications in biotechnology. We present an overview of the literature describing the uses of cyanobacteria in industry and services sectors and provide an outlook on the challenges and future prospects of the field of cyanobacterial biotechnology. Cyanobacteria have been identified as a rich source of biologically active compounds with antiviral, antibacterial, antifungal and anticancer activities. Several strains of cyanobacteria were found to accumulate polyhydroxyalkanoates, which can be used as a substitute for nonbiodegradable petrochemical‐based plastics. Recent studies showed that oil‐polluted sites are rich in cyanobacterial consortia capable of degrading oil components. Cyanobacteria within these consortia facilitated the degradation processes by providing the associated oil‐degrading bacteria with the necessary oxygen, organics and fixed nitrogen. Cyanobacterial hydrogen has been considered as a very promising source of alternative energy, and has now been made commercially available. In addition to these applications, cyanobacteria are also used in aquaculture, wastewater treatment, food, fertilizers, production of secondary metabolites including exopolysaccharides, vitamins, toxins, enzymes and pharmaceuticals. Future research should focus on isolating new cyanobacterial strains producing high value products and genetically modifying existing strains to ensure maximum production of the desired products. Metagenomic libraries should be constructed to discover new functional genes that are involved in the biosynthesis of biotechnological relevant compounds. Large‐scale industrial production of the cyanobacterial products requires optimization of incubation conditions and fermenter designs in order to increase productivity.

Mini-review: Inhibition of biofouling by marine microorganisms

“…Cyanobacteria produce chemicals in order to facilitate aggregation to form biofilms and to compete with other organisms for space and nutrients. Therefore, marine cyanobacteria have been recognised as a rich source of secondary metabolites with AF properties (Burja et al 2001;Pulz & Gross 2004;Abed et al 2009;Dobretsov et al 2010;Kwan et al 2011). Although there are more than 300 nitrogencontaining secondary metabolites with different biological activities reported from marine cyanobacteria, only a few compounds are known for their AF properties (Tan & Goh 2009).…”

Enzymatic Oxyfunctionalization Driven by Photosynthetic Water-Splitting in the Cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803

“…Autotrophic and chemolithotrophic metabolic organisms have recently received attention as they are capable of utilizing inorganic compounds as electron donors and thus would present a generally applicable method. Microalgae and cyanobacteria are already used in industry, and their cultivation is commercially viable [4]. Phototrophic microorganisms have been successfully engineered for the production of organic molecules such as 1-butanol, 2,3-butanediol and isopropanol, ethanol, and medium-chain fatty acids with titers up to several grams per litre [5,6].…”

Isolation, characterization and localization of extracellular polymeric substances from the cyanobacteriumArthrospira platensisstrain MMG-9

“…In recent years, there has been great interest in the exploitation of EPS by various industrial sectors because of the chemical and physical properties of these polymers. For instance, EPS and EPS-producing microorganisms have been used for soil conditioning (Abed et al, 2009).…”