Production of Photosynthetic Biofuels by Genetically Engineering Cyanobacteria

Cyanobacteria, photosynthetic bacteria with conversion capability to utilize solar energy and carbon dioxide and genetic engineering capacity to be easily modified to build non-native and improve native biosynthetic pathways, have displayed huge potential for biotechnology applications for direct production of biofuels by using solar energy as energy source and carbon dioxide as carbon source. Here research progress on microbial production of photosynthetic biofuels including hydrogen, ethanol, higher alcohols, isoprene and fatty acid-based biofuels in genetically engineered cyanobacteria is reviewed and the engineering challenges for using cyanobacteria as model hosts to make biofuels with high efficiency are discussed.