Abstract
Biofuels are important as dependency on fossil fuels has resulted in economic instability in the world and heavy environmental damage. Burning of fossil fuel releases heavy amounts of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, raising the concern of global warming. Development of alternative energy forms, sustainable and renewable in nature, is thus the need of the hour. In this context, agricultural production of biofuels has gained utmost importance, and more recently industrial biofuel production through cyanobacteria at large scale has almost stabilized the current scenario of global warming and current fuel demands. Modulation in the cyanobacterial biochemical and metabolic pathways at the genetic level for attractive biofuel yields is a challenge for upcoming scientists to offset petroleum and mineral oil usage and dependency.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Arthur DL (1999) Analysis and integral evaluation of potential carbon dioxide neutral fuel chains. GAVE reports (Management, summary, sheet presentation and appendices). Netherlands Agency for Energy and the Environment, Utrecht
Badger MR, Price GD, Long BM, Woodger FJ (2006) The environmental plasticity and ecological genomics of the cyanobacterial CO2 concentrating mechanism. J Exp Bot 57:249–265
Barriere Y et al (2004) Genetic and molecular basis of grass cell wall biosynthesis and degradability. II. Lessons from brown-midrib mutants. Comptes Rendus Biol 327:847–860
Berndes G, Hoogwijk M et al (2003) The contribution of biomass in the future global energy supply. Biomass Bioenergy 25:1–28
Deng MD, Coleman JR (1999) Ethanol synthesis by genetic engineering in cyanobacteria. Appl Environ Microbiol 65:523–528
Dewinder B, Stal LJ, Mur LR (1990) Crinalium epipsammum sp. nov.: a filamentous cyanobacterium with trichomes composed of elliptical cells and containing poly-β-(1,4) glucar (cellulose). J Gen Microbiol 136:1645–1653
Dunahay TG, Jarvis EE et al (1995) Genetic transformation of the diatoms Cyclotella cryptica and Navicula saprophila. J Phycol 31:1004–1011
Elam N (1996) Automotive fuels survey, Part 2: Raw materials and conversion. International Energy Agency, Breda
Fulda M (2010) Fatty acid activation in cyanobacteria mediated by acyl-acyl carrier protein synthetase enables fatty acid recycling. Plant Physiol 152(3):1598–1610
Giroux MJ, Shaw J, Barry G et al (1996) A single mutation that increases maize seed weight. Proc Natl Acad Sci 93:5824–5829
Goldemberg J (2000) World energy assessment, preface. United Nations Development Programme, New York
Goldemberg J (2007) Ethanol for a sustainable energy future. Science 315:808–810
Gressel J (2008) Genetic glass ceilings: transgenics for crop biodiversity. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore
Gressel J, Zilberstein A (2003) Let them eat (GM) straw. Trends Biotechnol 21:525–530
Griffiths MJ, Harrison STL (2009) Lipid productivity as a key characteristic for choosing algal species for biodiesel production. J Appl Physiol 21:493–507
Hall DO, Moss PA (1983) Biomass for energy in developing countries. Geojournal 7(1):5–14
Hall DO, Rosillo-Calle F, Williams RH et al (1993) Biomass for energy: supply prospects. In: Johansson TB, Kelly H, Amulya KNR, Williams RH (eds) Renewable energy, sources for fuels and electricity. Island Press, Washington, DC
Heyer H, Krumbein WE (1991) Excretion of fermentation products in dark and anaerobically incubated cyanobacteria. Arch Microbiol 155:284–287
Kaczmarzyk D, Fulda M (2010) Fatty acid activation in cyanobacteria mediated by acyl-acyl carrier protein synthetase enables fatty acid recycling. Plant Physiol 152(3):1598–1610
Kaplan A, Hagemann M, Bauwe H, Kahlon S, Ogawa T (2008) Carbon acquisition by cyanobacteria: mechanisms, comparative genomics and evolution. In: Herrero A, Flores E (eds) The cyanobacteria: molecular biology, genomics and evolution. Caister Academic Press, Sevilla
Mata TM, Martins AA, Caetano NS (2010) Microalgae for biodiesel production and other applications: a review. Renew Sustain Energy Rev 14:217–232
Molnar AA, Bassett E et al (2009) Highly specific gene silencing by artificial microRNAs in the unicellular alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. Plant J 58:165–174
Nashawi IS, Malallah A, Al-Bisharah M (2010) Forecasting world crude oil production using multicyclic Hubbert model. Energy Fuels 24:1788–1800
Nobles DR, Brown RM (2008) Transgenic expression of Gluconacetobacter xylinus strain ATCC 53582 cellulose synthase genes in the cyanobacterium Synechococcus leopoliensis strain UTCC 100. Cellulose 15:691–701
Parmar A, Singh NK, Pandey A, Gnansounou E, Madamwar D (2011) Cyanobacteria and microalgae: a positive prospect for biofuels. Bioresour Technol 102:10163–10172
Pereira S, Zille A, Micheletti E, Moradas-Ferreira P, Philippis R, Tamagnini P (2009) Complexity of cyanobacterial exopolysaccharides: composition, structures, inducing factors and putative genes involved in their biosynthesis and assembly. FEMS Microbiol Rev 33:917–941
Pienkos PT, Darzins A (2009) The promise and challenges of microalgal derived biofuels. Biofuels Bioprod Biorefin 3(4):431–440
Ramazanov A, Ramazanov Z (2006) Isolation and characterization of a starchless mutant of Chlorella pyrenoidosa STL-PI with a high growth rate and high protein and polyunsaturated fatty acid content. Phycol Res 54:255–259
Riso D, Raniell VR et al (2009) Gene silencing in the marine diatom Phaeodactylum tricornutum. Nucleic Acids Res 37:e96
Rittmann BE (2008) Opportunities for renewable bioenergy using microorganisms. Biotechnol Bioeng 100(2):203–212
Savage DF, Afonso B, Chen AH, Silver PA (2010) Spatially ordered dynamics of the bacterial carbon fixation machinery. Science 327:1258–1261
Schneegurt MA, Sherman DM, Sherman LA (1997) Growth, physiology and ultrastructure of the diazotrophic cyanobacterium, Cyanothece sp. strain ATCC 51142 in mixotrophic and chemotrophic cultures. J Phycol 33:632–642
Sheehan J, Dunahay T et al (1998) A look back at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Aquatic Species Program – biodiesel from algae. National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, pp 1–328
Smith AM (2008) Prospects for increasing starch and sucrose yields for bioethanol production. Plant J 54:546–558
Smith AM, Zeeman SC, Smith SM (2005) Starch degradation. Annu Rev Plant Biol 56:73–98
Stanier RY, Cohenbazire G (1977) Phototrophic prokaryotes—Cyanobacteria. Annu Rev Microbiol 31:225–274
Stark DM, Timmerman KP, Barry GF, Preiss J, Kishore GM (1992) Regulation of the amount of starch in plant tissues by ADP glucose pyrophosphorylase. Science 258:287–292
Stockel J et al (2008) Global transcriptomic analysis of Cyanothece 51142 reveals robust diurnal oscillation of central metabolic processes. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 105:6156–6161
Tamagnini P et al (2002) Hydrogenases and hydrogen metabolism of cyanobacteria. Microbiol Mol Biol Rev 66:1–20
Tamagnini P et al (2007) Cyanobacterial hydrogenases: diversity, regulation and applications. FEMS Microbiol Rev 31:692–720
The Green Chip Stocks (2008) http://www.greenchipstocks.com/articles/investing-algae-biofuel/253
Toepel WJ et al (2008) Differential transcriptional analysis of the cyanobacterium Cyanothece sp. strain ATCC 51142 during light–dark and continuous-light growth. J Bacteriol 190:3904–3913
Vanderoost J, Bulthuis BA, Feitz S, Krab K, Kraayenhof R (1989) Fermentation metabolism of the unicellular cyanobacterium Cyanothece PCC 7822. Arch Microbiol 152:415–419
Vigeolas HP, Waldeck T et al (2007) Increasing seed oil content in oil-seed rape (Brassica napus L.) by over-expression of a yeast glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase under the control of a seed-specific promoter. Plant Biotechnol J 5:431–441
Voelker TA, Davies HM (1994) Alteration of the specificity and regulation of fatty acid synthesis of Escherichia coli by expression of a plant medium-chain acyl-acyl carrier protein thioesterase. J Bacteriol 176:7320–7327
Yang J, Xu M et al (2011) Life cycle analysis on biodiesel production from microalgae: water footprint and nutrients balance. Bioresour Technol 102(1):159–165
Zehr JP et al (2001) Unicellular cyanobacteria fix nitrogen in the subtropical North Pacific Ocean. Nature 412:635–638
Zhao T, Wang W et al (2009) Gene silencing by artificial microRNAs in Chlamydomonas. Plant J 58:157–164
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2013 Springer India
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Singh, N., Chanan, R. (2013). Third Generation Green Energy: Cyanobacteria, Key to Production of Sustainable Energy Through Metabolic Engineering. In: Salar, R., Gahlawat, S., Siwach, P., Duhan, J. (eds) Biotechnology: Prospects and Applications. Springer, New Delhi. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-81-322-1683-4_12
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-81-322-1683-4_12
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, New Delhi
Print ISBN: 978-81-322-1682-7
Online ISBN: 978-81-322-1683-4
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life SciencesBiomedical and Life Sciences (R0)