Chapter 6: Microalgae as a Sustainable Synthetic-biology Platform for the Production of Recombinant Proteins: Advantages, Bottlenecks, and Case Studies

Photosynthetic microorganisms including cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) and green algae have been envisioned to play a pivotal role in bringing the much required sustainability by fulfilling the growing needs with respect to energy, food, feed, and other speciality chemicals for the increasing human population. With a higher rate of conversion of sunlight to photosynthates and a non-requirement of arable land and freshwater, algae hold the promise to strike the right balance rather than getting caught in the food vs fuel or food vs feed debates. However, it is equally true that the realization of this promise has certainly been delayed if not denied yet. The delay in the wide and large-scale commercialization of algae as a chassis for production of bio-fuels or speciality chemicals including proteins for therapeutic and nutritional applications has been owing to several fold challenges at cellular and molecular to mass cultivation and harvesting levels. Synthetic biology interventions have helped to achieve and establish algae as a promising host to produce sustainable application-oriented products. This chapter discusses some of the heretofore approaches and challenges towards heterologous expression of proteins from algae with a special a mention of the commercial trends. This chapter also discusses growing participation of intellectual properties globally especially towards heterologous gene expression from algae.