Engineering Sustainable Chemicals Biomanufacturing Using Photosynthetic Bacteria

The field of microbial photobiotechnology would benefit from success stories where genetically engineered alga and cyanobacteria are commercially used for the conversion of CO₂and N₂into non-native chemicals in a financially sustainable manner. At least for low value / large volume products such as fuels, photobiotechnological replacements may remain a dream as long as fossil fuels are subsidised and all direct and indirect costs are not paid for by the consumer. Photobiotechnology needs to supply large volume markets in order to have a measurable impact but the high-value sector also merits our current attention in order to get started and acquire commercial experience and confidence in the technology.

I will describe our group work on engineering cyanobacteria to produce a number of products, the lessons learned and the challenges still ahead. What could a roadmap towards commercialization of engineered cyanobacteria look like?

Selected references

1. Sattayawat, P., Yunus, I.S., Jones, P.R.* (2020) Bioderivatization as a concept for renewable production of chemicals that are toxic or poorly soluble in the liquid phase. PNAS117, 1404-1413.
2. Yunus, I.S., Palma, A., Trudeau, D.L., Tawfik, D.S., Jones, P.R.*(2020) Methanol-free biosynthesis of fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) in Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803. Metabolic Engineering57, 217-227.