title: Design, engineering, and construction of photosynthetic microbial cell factories for renewable solar fuel production.
abstract: There is an urgent need to develop sustainable solutions to convert solar energy into energy carriers used in the society. In addition to solar cells generating electricity, there are several options to generate solar fuels. This paper outlines and discusses the design and engineering of photosynthetic microbial systems for the generation of renewable solar fuels, with a focus on cyanobacteria. Cyanobacteria are prokaryotic microorganisms with the same type of photosynthesis as higher plants. Native and engineered cyanobacteria have been used by us and others as model systems to examine, demonstrate, and develop photobiological H(2) production. More recently, the production of carbon-containing solar fuels like ethanol, butanol, and isoprene have been demonstrated. We are using a synthetic biology approach to develop efficient photosynthetic microbial cell factories for direct generation of biofuels from solar energy. Present progress and advances in the design, engineering, and construction of such cyanobacterial cells for the generation of a portfolio of solar fuels, e.g., hydrogen, alcohols, and isoprene, are presented and discussed. Possibilities and challenges when introducing and using synthetic biology are highlighted.
authors.affiliation: Photochemistry and Molecular Science, Department of Chemistry-Ångström Laboratory, Uppsala University, P.O. Box 523, 751 20, Uppsala, Sweden. Peter.Lindblad@kemi.uu.se
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Lindblad
authors.forename: Pia
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Lindberg
authors.forename: Paulo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Oliveira
authors.forename: Karin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Stensjö
authors.forename: Thorsten
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Heidorn
mesh_terms: D056804:Biofuels; D000458:Cyanobacteria / Q000378:metabolism*; D005818:Genetic Engineering; D006859:Hydrogen / Q000378:metabolism; D010777:Photochemistry; D040901:Proteomics; D012993:Solar Energy; D058615:Synthetic Biology
chemical_list: D056804:Biofuels; D006859:Hydrogen