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Summary Cyanobacteria have gained a lot of attention in recent years because of their potential applications in biotechnology. We present an overview of the literature describing the uses of cyanobacteria in industry and services sectors and provide an outlook on the challenges and future prospects of the field of cyanobacterial biotechnology. Cyanobacteria have been identified as a rich source of biologically active compounds with antiviral, antibacterial, antifungal and anticancer activities. Several strains of cyanobacteria were found to accumulate polyhydroxyalkanoates, which can be used as a substitute for nonbiodegradable petrochemical‐based plastics. Recent studies showed that oil‐polluted sites are rich in cyanobacterial consortia capable of degrading oil components. Cyanobacteria within these consortia facilitated the degradation processes by providing the associated oil‐degrading bacteria with the necessary oxygen, organics and fixed nitrogen. Cyanobacterial hydrogen has been considered as a very promising source of alternative energy, and has now been made commercially available. In addition to these applications, cyanobacteria are also used in aquaculture, wastewater treatment, food, fertilizers, production of secondary metabolites including exopolysaccharides, vitamins, toxins, enzymes and pharmaceuticals. Future research should focus on isolating new cyanobacterial strains producing high value products and genetically modifying existing strains to ensure maximum production of the desired products. Metagenomic libraries should be constructed to discover new functional genes that are involved in the biosynthesis of biotechnological relevant compounds. Large‐scale industrial production of the cyanobacterial products requires optimization of incubation conditions and fermenter designs in order to increase productivity.

Advances in science and technology have resulted in the rapid development of modern society, which is clearly unsustainable because of the strain it places on current resources. The energy and materials needed to sustain the present society are derived primarily from non‐renewable fossil resources, which will be depleted at some point. Plastics are one example of an important commodity in the modern lifestyle. While plastics are undoubtedly superior materials in terms of their costs, processability and functional properties, they are currently derived from fossil resources and they are not readily assimilated by the various ecosystems upon disposal. The search for biodegradable plastics that are derived from renewable resources has been ongoing since the 1970s. Two of the most promising biobased plastics, i. e., polylactic acid and polyhydroxyalkanoates, have received much attention as potential alternatives to existing processes. This article will discuss the current status and sustainability of these two next generation biobased plastics by taking into consideration the raw materials required, as well as the post‐consumption effects of these materials on the environment. In addition, important issues surrounding the development and sustainability of biobased and biodegradable plastics will be highlighted.

To develop a new easy and quick gene delivery system for any types of plants, we prepared ionic complexes of plasmid DNA with designed peptide carriers, each of which combined a cell-penetrating peptide (Bp100 or Tat(2)) with a polycation (nona-arginine or a copolymer of histidine and lysine). The present system via the designed peptides demonstrated rapid and efficient transient transfections into intact leaf cells of Nicotiana benthamiana and Arabidopsis thaliana without protoplast preparations. The designed peptides demonstrated significantly higher transfection efficiency in comparison to the nonfusion peptides (Bp100, Tat2, nona-arginine, and copolymer of histidine and lysine), indicating that the combination of functional peptides was a key to develop an efficient peptide-based gene delivery system. On the basis of the results, we exhibited the versatility of the designed peptide-based gene delivery system, which will explore the application of plant biotechnology.

Abstract. The deleterious environmental impacts caused by plastic wastes have attracted worldwide concern. The biobased and biodegradable polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) appears to be one of the potential candidates to replace some conventional plastics. However, high production cost of PHAs has limited their market penetration. The major cost absorbing factors are the upstream fermentation processes and the downstream PHA recovery technologies. The latter significantly affects the overall process economics. Various recovery technologies have been proposed and studied in small scales in the laboratory as well as in industrial scales. These include solvent extraction, chemical digestion, enzymatic treatment and mechanical disruption, supercritical fluid disruption, flotation techniques, use of gamma irradiation and aqueous two-phase system. This paper reviews all the recovery methods known to date and compares their efficiency and the quality of the resulting PHA. Some of the large-scale production of PHA and the strategies employed to reduce the production cost are also discussed.

A 14‐week feeding trial was conducted to determine the effects of dietary organic acids. The experimental diets were added with 0, 1, 2 or 3 g kg−1 of a novel organic acid blend or with 2 g kg−1 of potassium diformate and fed to triplicate groups of red hybrid tilapia (Oreochromis sp.). Upon completion, tilapia were challenged by immersion with Streptococcus agalactiae. There was no significant difference (P>0.05) in the growth, feed utilization and nutrient digestibility among treatment groups despite a trend towards improved results with fish fed organic acid‐supplemented diets. Diet pH decreased, causing a reduction in the digesta pH of the stomach and gut. Total bacteria per gram of faeces were significantly (P<0.05) reduced from 1.81 × 108 colony‐forming units (CFU) (control group) up to 0.67 × 108 CFU in the fish fed organic acid diets. A similar trend was observed for adherent gut bacteria. Cumulative mortality of fish fed no organic acids was higher compared with fish fed organic acid‐supplemented diets at 16 days post challenge. The data showed that dietary organic acids can exert strong anti‐microbial effects and have the potential to exert beneficial effects on growth, nutrient utilization and disease resistance in tilapia.

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