Premium
Doing synthetic biology with photosynthetic microorganisms
Author(s) -
Vavitsas Konstantinos,
Kugler Amit,
Satta Alessandro,
Hatzinikolaou Dimitris G.,
Lindblad Peter,
Fewer David P.,
Lindberg Pia,
Toivari Mervi,
Stensjö Karin
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
physiologia plantarum
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.351
H-Index - 146
eISSN - 1399-3054
pISSN - 0031-9317
DOI - 10.1111/ppl.13455
Subject(s) - synthetic biology , biology , commodity chemicals , biochemical engineering , data science , metabolic engineering , computer science , computational biology , microbiology and biotechnology , ecology , engineering , genetics , biochemistry , gene , catalysis
The use of photosynthetic microbes as synthetic biology hosts for the sustainable production of commodity chemicals and even fuels has received increasing attention over the last decade. The number of studies published, tools implemented, and resources made available for microalgae have increased beyond expectations during the last few years. However, the tools available for genetic engineering in these organisms still lag those available for the more commonly used heterotrophic host organisms. In this mini‐review, we provide an overview of the photosynthetic microbes most commonly used in synthetic biology studies, namely cyanobacteria, chlorophytes, eustigmatophytes and diatoms. We provide basic information on the techniques and tools available for each model group of organisms, we outline the state‐of‐the‐art, and we list the synthetic biology tools that have been successfully used. We specifically focus on the latest CRISPR developments, as we believe that precision editing and advanced genetic engineering tools will be pivotal to the advancement of the field. Finally, we discuss the relative strengths and weaknesses of each group of organisms and examine the challenges that need to be overcome to achieve their synthetic biology potential.