Insights into cyanobacterial alkane biosynthesis

Alkanes are high-energy molecules that are compatible with enduring liquid fuel infrastructures, which make them highly suitable for being next-generation biofuels. Though biological production of alkanes has been reported in various microorganisms, the reports citing photosynthetic cyanobacteria as...

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Autores principales: Parveen, Humaira, Yazdani, Syed Shams
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Oxford University Press 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9118987/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34718648
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jimb/kuab075
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author Parveen, Humaira
Yazdani, Syed Shams
author_facet Parveen, Humaira
Yazdani, Syed Shams
author_sort Parveen, Humaira
collection PubMed
description Alkanes are high-energy molecules that are compatible with enduring liquid fuel infrastructures, which make them highly suitable for being next-generation biofuels. Though biological production of alkanes has been reported in various microorganisms, the reports citing photosynthetic cyanobacteria as natural producers have been the most consistent for the long-chain alkanes and alkenes (C15–C19). However, the production of alkane in cyanobacteria is low, leading to its extraction being uneconomical for commercial purposes. In order to make alkane production economically feasible from cyanobacteria, the titre and yield need to be increased by several orders of magnitude. In the recent past, efforts have been made to enhance alkane production, although with a little gain in yield, leaving space for much improvement. Genetic manipulation in cyanobacteria is considered challenging, but recent advancements in genetic engineering tools may assist in manipulating the genome in order to enhance alkane production. Further, advancement in a basic understanding of metabolic pathways and gene functioning will guide future research for harvesting the potential of these tiny photosynthetically efficient factories. In this review, our focus would be to highlight the current knowledge available on cyanobacterial alkane production, and the potential aspects of developing cyanobacterium as an economical source of biofuel. Further insights into different metabolic pathways and hosts explored so far, and possible challenges in scaling up the production of alkanes will also be discussed.
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spelling pubmed-91189872022-06-08 Insights into cyanobacterial alkane biosynthesis Parveen, Humaira Yazdani, Syed Shams J Ind Microbiol Biotechnol Review Alkanes are high-energy molecules that are compatible with enduring liquid fuel infrastructures, which make them highly suitable for being next-generation biofuels. Though biological production of alkanes has been reported in various microorganisms, the reports citing photosynthetic cyanobacteria as natural producers have been the most consistent for the long-chain alkanes and alkenes (C15–C19). However, the production of alkane in cyanobacteria is low, leading to its extraction being uneconomical for commercial purposes. In order to make alkane production economically feasible from cyanobacteria, the titre and yield need to be increased by several orders of magnitude. In the recent past, efforts have been made to enhance alkane production, although with a little gain in yield, leaving space for much improvement. Genetic manipulation in cyanobacteria is considered challenging, but recent advancements in genetic engineering tools may assist in manipulating the genome in order to enhance alkane production. Further, advancement in a basic understanding of metabolic pathways and gene functioning will guide future research for harvesting the potential of these tiny photosynthetically efficient factories. In this review, our focus would be to highlight the current knowledge available on cyanobacterial alkane production, and the potential aspects of developing cyanobacterium as an economical source of biofuel. Further insights into different metabolic pathways and hosts explored so far, and possible challenges in scaling up the production of alkanes will also be discussed. Oxford University Press 2021-10-29 /pmc/articles/PMC9118987/ /pubmed/34718648 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jimb/kuab075 Text en © The Author(s) 2021. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Society of Industrial Microbiology and Biotechnology. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Review
Parveen, Humaira
Yazdani, Syed Shams
Insights into cyanobacterial alkane biosynthesis
title Insights into cyanobacterial alkane biosynthesis
title_full Insights into cyanobacterial alkane biosynthesis
title_fullStr Insights into cyanobacterial alkane biosynthesis
title_full_unstemmed Insights into cyanobacterial alkane biosynthesis
title_short Insights into cyanobacterial alkane biosynthesis
title_sort insights into cyanobacterial alkane biosynthesis
topic Review
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9118987/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34718648
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jimb/kuab075
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