Use of Solar Energy for the Production of Biofuels and Other Products by Native and Genetically Altered Cyanobacteria

Cyanobacteria have many advantages over other photosynthetic organisms to efficiently convert solar energy into biofuels, including biodiesel. Moreover, with a known genomic sequence and a facile transformation system, specific cyanobacteria can be modified to be designer organisms optimized for production of specific compounds and under specific climatic conditions (temperature, light intensity). The physiology of specific cyanobacteria is well-understood, providing major advantages for metabolic and protein engineering. This makes cyanobacteria to be among the leaders for biofuel production using solar energy.