Carbon-negative synthetic biology: challenges and emerging trends of cyanobacterial technology

• Published in: Trends in biotechnology (Regular ed.) 2022-12, Vol.40 (12), p.1488-1502
• Main Authors: Tan, Chunlin, Xu, Ping, Tao, Fei
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Biology; Biosynthesis; Carbon; Carbon Dioxide; Carbon sequestration; Carbon sources; Chemicals; Climate change; CO2 uptake and fixation; Commercialization; CRISPR; Cyanobacteria; Cyanobacteria - genetics; cyanobacterium; Emissions; Evolution & development; Factories; Global warming; Hydrocarbons; Light; Mars; Metabolism; Photosynthesis; polymer; Productivity; Renewable resources; Sustainable production; Synthetic Biology; Technology; Trends; value-added product
• ISSN: 0167-7799; 1879-3096
• DOI: 10.1016/j.tibtech.2022.09.012

Global warming and climate instability have spurred interest in using renewable carbon resources for the sustainable production of chemicals. Cyanobacteria are ideal cellular factories for carbon-negative production of chemicals owing to their great potentials for directly utilizing light and CO2 as sole energy and carbon sources, respectively. However, several challenges in adapting cyanobacterial technology to industry, such as low productivity, poor tolerance, and product harvesting difficulty, remain. Synthetic biology may finally address these challenges. Here, we summarize recent advances in the production of value-added chemicals using cyanobacterial cell factories, particularly in carbon-negative synthetic biology and emerging trends in cyanobacterial applications. We also propose several perspectives on the future development of cyanobacterial technology for commercialization. Excessive CO2 emissions are one of the most widely discussed challenges in the 21st century. Carbon-negative production of value-added chemicals by cyanobacterial cell factories has been considered a top priority for solving such problems.Emerging synthetic biology tools, such as clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/cpf1, riboswitch, and metabolic network reprogramming circuits, have accelerated the industrial applications of cyanobacterial cell factories.The synthesis of a range of biochemicals has been demonstrated in cyanobacteria; however, low product titers are the biggest barrier to commercialization of cyanobacterial biotechnology. To further increase production and meet industry demands, attention needs also be given to the integration of polymer biosynthesis with flocculation by cyanobacteria, thereby bypassing this unsolved problem.Recent efforts are underway to characterize and develop high-value-added applications of cyanobacteria in biomedicine, power production, and human habitation on Mars.