Metabolic Engineering of Microalgae for Sustainable Bioproduction: Successes, Limits, and Future Perspectives

Dear Colleagues,

Microalgae are a heterogenic group of microorganisms able to convert inorganic carbon into sugars, producing oxygen as a side product by exploiting photosynthesis. Microalgae are responsible for more than half of the photosynthesis processes on Earth, and they can play a central role in sustainable development required by Agenda 2030 thanks to their extraordinary nutritional properties and ability to absorb atmospheric CO₂ to mitigate climate change. Microalgae also have the potential to provide high-nutrient low-cost food, especially in those countries whose geo-economic conditions do not allow the intensive use of traditional agriculture. The possibility of growing microalgae using wastewater and flue gases by exploiting non-arable lands in nearby photobioreactors is one of microalgae’s enormous advantages. It is no wonder that microalgae are currently considered a concrete alternative to plants in producing food and, to a lesser extent, energy. Nevertheless, they are promising solar-driven cell factories for producing a considerable variety of metabolites or high-value bioproducts. The scientific community is constantly working to overcome the present limitations, many of which have been successfully solved. The abundance of genomes for new species, advanced genomic manipulation techniques, and pioneering synthetic biology approaches results in excellent metabolite production using microalgae as a cell factory.

I am pleased to invite contributions to this Biology Special Issue entitled “Metabolic Engineering of Microalgae for Sustainable Bioproduction: Successes, Limits, and Future Perspectives”. The scope of this Special Issue is to collect original research, reviews, or short communications regarding the use of microalgae as a bio-factory for producing high-value products. The use of microalgae as a cell factory will be covered in-depth. Successful metabolic engineering approaches and solutions to constraints are welcome.

Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

• Microalgae synthetic biology, new manipulable species, or new techniques.
• Microalgae used for the production of bio-products.
• Increasing metabolite production or microalgal productivity.
• New techniques to break down cultivation costs: from PBR to media.
• Use of microalgae for phytoremediation.

I look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Federico Perozeni
Guest Editor

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