Microalgae as platforms for production of recombinant proteins and valuable compounds: progress and prospects

Abstract

Over the last few years microalgae have gained increasing interest as a natural source of valuable compounds and as bioreactors for recombinant protein production. Natural high-value compounds including pigments, long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids, and polysaccharides, which have a wide range of applications in the food, feed, cosmetics, and pharmaceutical industries, are currently produced with nontransgenic microalgae. However, transgenic microalgae can be used as bioreactors for the production of therapeutic and industrially relevant recombinant proteins. This technology shows great promise to simplify the production process and significantly decrease the production costs. To date, a variety of recombinant proteins have been produced experimentally from the nuclear or chloroplast genome of transgenic Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. These include monoclonal antibodies, vaccines, hormones, pharmaceutical proteins, and others. In this review, we outline recent progress in the production of recombinant proteins with transgenic microalgae as bioreactors, methods for genetic transformation of microalgae, and strategies for highly efficient expression of heterologous genes. In particular, we highlight the importance of maximizing the value of transgenic microalgae through producing recombinant proteins together with recovery of natural high-value compounds. Finally, we outline some important issues that need to be addressed before commercial-scale production of high-value recombinant proteins and compounds from transgenic microalgae can be realized.

Harvesting microalgae, Chlorella sp. by bio-flocculation of Moringa oleifera seed derivatives from aquaculture wastewater phytoremediation

“…However, this approach had contributed to very high operational and maintenance cost due to the energy requirement for the machinery especially in massive scale (Bahadar and Khan, 2013;Razzak et al, 2013). As a result, mass production of microalgae only be justified in the case of production for expensive products such as drug precursors and pharmaceutical purposes (Gong et al, 2011;Lananan et al, 2013). Thus, the operational costs should be drastically decrease in order to make the commercial production feasible especially for low value, bulk biomass production such as for biofuel production (Quinn et al, 2012;Xu et al, 2013).…”

Control of CO2 input conditions during outdoor culture of Chlorella vulgaris in bubble column photobioreactors

“…For instance, they can be used as microbioreactors to produce chemical products that are currently being used in food, cosmetics, nutrition and pharmaceutical industries (Gong et al, 2011).…”

Plastids of Marine Phytoplankton Produce Bioactive Pigments and Lipids

“…This technology is very promising as it would simplify the production process and would lead to a significant decrease of the production costs. To date, a variety of recombinant proteins have been produced experimentally from the nuclear or chloroplast genome of transgenic microalgae, e.g., [298]. For the production of phycoerythrin, Ruiz-Ruiz [299] claims that further improvement could be pursued, e.g., P. cruentum biomass production could be optimized in tubular photobioreactors or open-ponds together with molecular biology approaches.…”