Gimpel Javier A, Henríquez Vitalia, Mayfield Stephen P
Chemical and Biotechnology Engineering Department, Centre for Biotechnology and Bioengineering, Universidad de Chile Santiago, Chile.
Instituto de Biología, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso Valparaiso, Chile.
Front Microbiol. 2015 Dec 15;6:1376. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2015.01376. eCollection 2015.
The great phylogenetic diversity of microalgae is corresponded by a wide arrange of interesting and useful metabolites. Nonetheless metabolic engineering in microalgae has been limited, since specific transformation tools must be developed for each species for either the nuclear or chloroplast genomes. Microalgae as production platforms for metabolites offer several advantages over plants and other microorganisms, like the ability of GMO containment and reduced costs in culture media, respectively. Currently, microalgae have proved particularly well suited for the commercial production of omega-3 fatty acids and carotenoids. Therefore most metabolic engineering strategies have been developed for these metabolites. Microalgal biofuels have also drawn great attention recently, resulting in efforts for improving the production of hydrogen and photosynthates, particularly triacylglycerides. Metabolic pathways of microalgae have also been manipulated in order to improve photosynthetic growth under specific conditions and for achieving trophic conversion. Although these pathways are not strictly related to secondary metabolites, the synthetic biology approaches could potentially be translated to this field and will also be discussed.
微藻巨大的系统发育多样性伴随着种类繁多的有趣且有用的代谢产物。然而，微藻中的代谢工程一直受到限制，因为必须针对每个物种的核基因组或叶绿体基因组开发特定的转化工具。微藻作为代谢产物的生产平台，相对于植物和其他微生物具有若干优势，例如分别具有转基因生物遏制能力和降低培养基成本的优势。目前，微藻已被证明特别适合商业生产ω-3脂肪酸和类胡萝卜素。因此，大多数代谢工程策略都是针对这些代谢产物开发的。微藻生物燃料最近也备受关注，人们致力于提高氢气和光合产物，特别是三酰甘油的产量。微藻的代谢途径也已被调控，以改善特定条件下的光合生长并实现营养转化。尽管这些途径与次生代谢产物没有严格关系，但合成生物学方法有可能应用于该领域，也将对此进行讨论。
