Current advances in engineering cyanobacteria and their applications for photosynthetic butanol production
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Cyanobacteria are natural photosynthetic microbes which can be engineered for sustainable conversion of solar energy and carbon dioxide into chemical products. Attempts to improve target production often require an improved understanding of the native cyanobacterial host system. Valuable insights into cyanobacterial metabolism, biochemistry and physiology have been steadily increasing in recent years, stimulating key advancements of cyanobacteria as cell factories for biochemical, including biofuel, production. In the present review, we summarize the current progress in engineering cyanobacteria and discuss the achieved and potential utilization of these advances in cyanobacteria for the production of the bulk chemical butanol, specifically isobutanol and 1-butanol.
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Oxygenic photosynthesis in cyanobacteria generates ATP and NADPH via the photosynthetic electron transport chain, which drive CO2 fixation through the Calvin-Benson-Bassham cycle into carbon intermediates that can be redirected toward engineered heterologous pathways.
“Cyanobacteria are increasingly recognised as photosynthetic chassis for sustainable metabolic engineering because oxygenic photosynthesis generates ATP and NADPH via the photosynthetic electron transport chain, which drive CO2 fixation through the Calvin–Benson–Bassham cycle into carbon intermediates that can be redirected toward engineered heterologous pathways.”
From Cyanobacteria as a Photosynthetic Chassis for Metabolic Pathway Engineering with Heterologous Gene Expression (2026) · cites this paper as [8]
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- Liu X, Xie H, Roussou S, Miao R, Lindblad P: Engineering cyanobacteria for photosynthetic butanol production. In Photosynthesis: Biotechnological Applications with Micro-Algae. Edited by Ro ¨gner M. Walter de Gruyter GmbH; 2021:978-3-11- 071691-733-56.
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“In contrast, cyanobacteria possess the unique ability to grow photo-autotrophically by utilising light as their primary energy source while assimilating CO 2 through the Calvin– Benson–Bassham cycle [1,8].”
- Authors
- Liu, X., Xie, H., Roussou, S., & Lindblad, P.
- Affiliations
- Uppsala University (SE)
- Corresponding author
- Lindblad, Peter
- Venue
- Current Opinion in Biotechnology
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2022-02
- Volume
- 73
- Pages
- 143-150
- ISSN
- 0958-1669 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W3193400645
- Cited by
- 62
- References
- 52
- Citations by year
- 2026: 10 · 2025: 11 · 2024: 17 · 2023: 11 · 2022: 12 · 2021: 1
- FWCI
- 1.07
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Current Opinion in Biotechnology (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Uppsala University Publications (Uppsala University) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Funders
- Energimyndigheten (82845, P46607-1)
- Horizon 2020 Framework Programme
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Microbial Metabolic Engineering and Bioproduction
- Physical Sciences › Energy › Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment › Algal biology and biofuel production
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Photosynthetic Processes and Mechanisms
- Keywords
- cyanobacteria, metabolic engineering, isobutanol, n-butanol, cell factories, biofuels, CO2 conversion, solar energy conversion, cyanobacterial metabolism
- MeSH terms
- Butanols, Cyanobacteria, Photosynthesis, 1-Butanol, Biofuels, Metabolic Engineering
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