10. Engineering Photosynthetic Microbes for Sustainable Bioenergy Production

The implementation of photosynthetic organisms has received tremendous attention in the last two decades in order to achieve the products of high industrial value at the minimal cost of environmental carbon dioxide, water and nutrients. The advancement of molecular biology tools including the availability of completely sequenced genome of a variety of photoautotrophs has made their genetic modification possible for it. In the past decade, there was an increase in the discovery of novel biosynthetic pathways in photosynthetic organisms, but there are several challenges that need to be reported and solved for developing an improved engineered strain with desired traits. Genetic engineering tools are required not only to introduce novel pathways in the photosynthetic organisms but also to modify host metabolism. For solar biofuels, most of the metabolic engineering attempts have been applied on cyanobacteria and microalgae, mainly focused in this chapter. To modify cyanobacteria for production of biofuel, the efficiency of photon conversation should be targeted which in turn may allow effective utilization of solar energy. A combinatorial approach for developments of these strains, their selection, genetic engineering, optimization of bioreactors and processing technology may pave the way for the production of biofuels that can ensure future energy security in a sustainable manner. In a larger perspective, efficient photosynthetic machinery provides a solution for an efficient and large-scale biofuel production which holds the promise of replacing harmful non-renewable fossil fuels, which may eventually delay a shift in global climate change.