TY - JOUR
T1 - In metabolic engineering of eukaryotic microalgae
T2 - Potential and challenges come with great diversity
AU - Gimpel, Javier A.
AU - Henríquez, Vitalia
AU - Mayfield, Stephen P.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 Gimpel, Henríquez and Mayfield.
PY - 2015
Y1 - 2015
N2 - The great phylogenetic diversity of microalgae is corresponded by a wide arrange of interesting and useful metabolites. Nonetheless metabolic engineering in microalgae has been limited, since specific transformation tools must be developed for each species for either the nuclear or chloroplast genomes. Microalgae as production platforms for metabolites offer several advantages over plants and other microorganisms, like the ability of GMO containment and reduced costs in culture media, respectively. Currently, microalgae have proved particularly well suited for the commercial production of omega-3 fatty acids and carotenoids. Therefore most metabolic engineering strategies have been developed for these metabolites. Microalgal biofuels have also drawn great attention recently, resulting in efforts for improving the production of hydrogen and photosynthates, particularly triacylglycerides. Metabolic pathways of microalgae have also been manipulated in order to improve photosynthetic growth under specific conditions and for achieving trophic conversion. Although these pathways are not strictly related to secondary metabolites, the synthetic biology approaches could potentially be translated to this field and will also be discussed.
AB - The great phylogenetic diversity of microalgae is corresponded by a wide arrange of interesting and useful metabolites. Nonetheless metabolic engineering in microalgae has been limited, since specific transformation tools must be developed for each species for either the nuclear or chloroplast genomes. Microalgae as production platforms for metabolites offer several advantages over plants and other microorganisms, like the ability of GMO containment and reduced costs in culture media, respectively. Currently, microalgae have proved particularly well suited for the commercial production of omega-3 fatty acids and carotenoids. Therefore most metabolic engineering strategies have been developed for these metabolites. Microalgal biofuels have also drawn great attention recently, resulting in efforts for improving the production of hydrogen and photosynthates, particularly triacylglycerides. Metabolic pathways of microalgae have also been manipulated in order to improve photosynthetic growth under specific conditions and for achieving trophic conversion. Although these pathways are not strictly related to secondary metabolites, the synthetic biology approaches could potentially be translated to this field and will also be discussed.
KW - Biodiesel
KW - Biohydrogen
KW - Carotenoids
KW - Metabolic engineering
KW - Microalgae
KW - PUFA
KW - Photosynthesis
KW - Transformation
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84954174060&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3389/fmicb.2015.01376
DO - 10.3389/fmicb.2015.01376
M3 - Review article
AN - SCOPUS:84954174060
VL - 6
JO - Frontiers in Microbiology
JF - Frontiers in Microbiology
SN - 1664-302X
IS - DEC
M1 - 01376
ER -