Cyanobacteria: Review of Current Potentials and Applications

Abstract

Continual increases in the human population and growing concerns related to the energy crisis, food security, disease outbreaks, global warming, and other environmental issues require a sustainable solution from nature. One of the promising resources is cyanobacteria, also known as blue-green algae. They require simple ingredients to grow and possess a relatively simple genome. Cyanobacteria are known to produce a wide variety of bioactive compounds. In addition, cyanobacteria’s remarkable growth rate enables its potential use in a wide range of applications in the fields of bioenergy, biotechnology, natural products, medicine, agriculture, and the environment. In this review, we have summarized the potential applications of cyanobacteria in different areas of science and development, especially related to their use in producing biofuels and other valuable co-products. We have also discussed the challenges that hinder such development at an industrial level and ways to overcome such obstacles.

Cyanotherapeutics: an emerging field for future drug discovery

“…The increase in population with limited natural resources will have major impacts on food and health. Moreover, dependency on agricultural crops in limited land space will be insufficient to meet the requirements of growing populations (Huisman et al, 2018;Zahra et al, 2020). It requires us to explore cost-effective alternative resources to meet the continuously increasing demand of a global population growing in terms of nutrition and healthcare.…”

“…They have fast-growing potential with no requirement of agricultural land, for cultivation, only a tank containing water and nutrient is sufficient for their luxuriant growth, easy to harvest and transport along with harbouring medically important biomolecules. Also, cyanobacteria have a higher yield per area as compared to agricultural crops and the ability to grow on non-productive and non-arable lands and different water conditions (Zahra et al 2020).…”

Engineered cyanobacteria with additional overexpression of selected Calvin-Benson-Bassham enzymes show further increased ethanol production

“…Therefore they can be cultivated on free arable land avoiding competition with e.g. the food industry ( Zahra et al., 2020 ) which makes them promising green cell factories ( Repice et al., 2010 ).…”

Marine Biotechnology: Challenges and Development Market Trends for the Enhancement of Biotic Resources in Industrial Pharmaceutical and Food Applications. A Statistical Analysis of Scientific Literature and Business Models

“…On the other hand, Spirulina , characterized by a high protein content that makes it an excellent addition to foodstuffs, belongs to the phylum of Cyanobacteria, photosynthetic microorganisms also called blue-green algae. Due to the specific cellular mechanisms of these microalgae, they are readily adaptable to environmental conditions and able to grow rapidly [ 18 ].…”