Bioproducts from Cyanobacteria and Microalgae: Current Trends and Future Perspectives

A special issue of Microorganisms (ISSN 2076-2607). This special issue belongs to the section "Environmental Microbiology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 March 2026 | Viewed by 357

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
GEMMA—Group of Environmental Engineering and Microbiology, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya—BarcelonaTech (UPC), Campus Nord, Building D1, 08034 Barcelona, Spain
Interests: environmental engineering and biotechnology; bioplastics; PHA; sustainable bioproducts production; wastewater treatment; microalgae; cyanobacteria; water reuse; resource recovery; circular economy; modelling

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Guest Editor Assistant
Isle Utilities Ltd., London N1 9AB, UK
Interests: cyanobacteria; wastewater treatment; microbiology; biotechnology; water quality

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The Special Issue entitled “Bioproducts from Cyanobacteria and Microalgae: Current Trends and Future Perspectives” aims to present recent research on any aspect of the sustainable exploitation of cyanobacteria and microalgae for value-added bioproducts. These photosynthetic microorganisms are increasingly recognised as versatile biofactories capable of producing a wide array of compounds with applications in health, agriculture, food, and cosmetics.

Some of its focal points include, but are not limited to, the following:

  1. Bioproducts and their applications: such as pigments, proteins, lipids, polysaccharides, and nutraceuticals with pharmaceutical, cosmetic, food, and agriculture applications.
  2. Process optimisation and engineering for enhanced productivity: innovations in cultivation, harvesting, genetic and metabolic engineering, and biorefinery processes to improve biomass and bioproducts yield.
  3. Cultivation systems: design, optimisation, and scaling of open ponds and photobioreactors.
  4. Omics-driven insights: Genomic, transcriptomic, proteomic, and metabolomic studies elucidating microbiome interaction and bioproduct production. Investigations related with, microbial consortia and synthetic communities and its effect on bioproduct production, culture resilence and/or wastewater treatment.
  5. New promising strains: identification and classification of new cyanobacterial and microalgae strains with interesting properties for bioproducts production.
  6. Wastewater treatment: cyanobacteria and microalgae for treating industrial, agricultural, and municipal wastewater, and simultaneous production of valuable bioproducts.
  7. Environmental and economic sustainability of biorefineries: explores the techno-economic feasibility and life-cycle assessment of converting algal biomass into a range of high-value products, including bioplastics, and biofertilizers.

Reviews, original research, and communications will be welcome. This issue will provide a comprehensive overview of the current state of algal biotechnology and highlight promising directions for future research and commercialisation.

Dr. Estel Rueda
Guest Editor

Dr. Beatriz Altamira-Algarra
Guest Editor Assistant

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Keywords

  • cyanobacteria
  • microalgae
  • bioproducts
  • biotechnology
  • biorefinery
  • process optimisation
  • genetic and metabolic engineering
  • wastewater treatment
  • cultivation systems

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

19 pages, 18071 KB  
Article
Controlled Carbon Loss: Threshold-Dependent Overflow Metabolism in Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803
by Janette T. Alford, Nathalie S. Becker, Johanna Rapp, Andreas Kulik, Janine Kaewbai-ngam, Tanakarn Monshupanee, Hannes Link and Karl Forchhammer
Microorganisms 2025, 13(12), 2767; https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms13122767 - 4 Dec 2025
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Abstract
Cyanobacteria such as Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 are promising chassis for sustainable bioproduction. During nitrogen starvation, Synechocystis redirects fixed carbon from biomass growth toward glycogen accumulation as a carbon and energy reserve. Inhibiting glycogen synthesis results in the excretion of excess carbon as [...] Read more.
Cyanobacteria such as Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 are promising chassis for sustainable bioproduction. During nitrogen starvation, Synechocystis redirects fixed carbon from biomass growth toward glycogen accumulation as a carbon and energy reserve. Inhibiting glycogen synthesis results in the excretion of excess carbon as organic acids, predominantly pyruvate and 2-oxoglutarate. Efficiently rerouting this carbon toward the formation of value-added products such as the plastic alternative polyhydroxybutyrate requires a deeper understanding of carbon partitioning and overflow metabolism. To investigate this, we quantified intra- and extracellular metabolites in Synechocystis wild-type and mutant strains with altered glycogen metabolism (Δpgm, ΔglgC, ΔglgA1, ΔglgA2), nitrogen signaling (ΔglnB), and carbon allocation (ΔpirC), including the double mutant ΔglgCΔpirC. Metabolites were analyzed after two days of nitrogen-replete or -depleted growth using enzymatic glycogen quantification and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry. Excretion was primarily triggered by inhibition of glycogen synthesis but modulated by other changes in carbon flow, such as pirC deletion. Besides pyruvate and 2-oxoglutarate, small amounts of glutamate, succinate, and malate were excreted. Our findings suggest that, rather than a passive consequence of metabolite accumulation, excretion is a selective, threshold-dependent process that limits intracellular metabolite buildup, revealing an additional layer of metabolic control relevant to cyanobacterial bioengineering. Full article
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