This volume highlights recent breakthroughs in the interdisciplinary areas of synthetic biology, metabolic engineering and bioprocess engineering for the production of green chemicals. It also presents practical experimental and computational tools for the design, construction and manipulation of cyanobacteria cell factories. The respective contributions cover new technologies in the field, such as novel genetic transformation techniques and bioinformatics analysis methods and address various aspects of cyanobacterial synthetic biology, offering a valuable resource for students and researchers in the fields of industry microbiology and biomedical engineering.

Unites a biological and a biotechnological perspective on cyanobacteria, and includes the industrial aspects and applications of cyanobacteria Cyanobacteria Biotechnology offers a guide to the interesting and useful features of cyanobacteria metabolism that keeps true to a biotechnology vision. In one volume the book brings together both biology and biotechnology to illuminate the core acpects and principles of cyanobacteria metabolism. Designed to offer a practical approach to the metabolic engineering of cyanobacteria, the book contains relevant examples of how this metabolic "module" is currently being engineered and how it could be engineered in the future. The author includes information on the requirements and real-world experiences of the industrial applications of cyanobacteria. This important book: Brings together biology and biotechnology in order to gain insight into the industrial relevant topic of cyanobacteria Introduces the key aspects of the metabolism of cyanobacteria Presents a grounded, practical approach to the metabolic engineering of cyanobacteria Offers an analysis of the requirements and experiences for industrial cyanobacteria Provides a framework for readers to design their own processes Written for biotechnologists, microbiologists, biologists, biochemists, Cyanobacteria Biotechnology provides a systematic and clear volume that brings together the biological and biotechnological perspective on cyanobacteria.

This volume comprises select papers presented at a symposium held in September, 1996 in India. The contributors used the forum to disseminate their research findings.

Environmental change is affecting the world's agricultural productivity. This is coupled with an increase in population: according to the United Nations Department for Economic and Social Affairs, the global population is estimated to reach 9.7 billion by 2050. Therefore, the current situation requires that we develop climate-smart technologies to improve crop productivity to sustain the ever-rising global population. Current-day farmers are introducing a considerable amount of agrochemicals to enhance crop productivity. Indiscriminate agrochemical application has altered not only the soil's physic-chemical and biological properties but also affected human health through food chain contamination. Cyanobacteria, under these changing environmental conditions, may help to resolve the problem significantly without changing the natural soil properties. In spite of their well-known stress tolerance potential, most of the cyanobacterial stress management and signaling pathways are yet to be fully characterized. Therefore, there is an urgent need to explore cyanobacterial metabolism under stress as well as their regulatory pathways to exploit them for sustainable agriculture. In recent decades, the application of cyanobacteria has attracted scientists because of uniqueness, better adaptability, and synthetic products. Diverse cyanobacterial communities with the ability to fix atmospheric nitrogen, together with their photosynthetic properties, have demonstrated their application under field conditions. Several cyanobacterial species have thus been exploited to enhance soil fertility, mitigate biotic and abiotic stress, and contamination management. Cyanobacterial Lifestyle and its Applications in Biotechnology has been designed to discuss different aspects of cyanobacterial physiology with the aim of helping to provide a better understanding of advanced cyanobacterial molecular biology and their metabolism to uncover the potential of cyanobacteria in the tailoring of stress smart crops for sustainable agriculture. Chapters include valuable information about the role of cyanobacteria in the evolution of life, cyanobacterial photosynthesis, stress-tolerant cyanobacterium, biological nitrogen fixation, circadian rhythms, genetics and molecular biology of abiotic stress responses. - Summarizes various aspects of cyanobacterial research. - Includes comprehensive coverage of molecular approaches for the identification of cyanobacteria and their evolution. - Identifies an expanding horizon of cyanobacterial lifestyle: stress management in cyanobacteria. - Examines cyanobacteria synthetic biology, genetic engineering, photosynthesis and metabolic engineering.

Synthetic biology encompasses a variety of different approaches, methodologies and disciplines, and many different definitions exist. This Volume of Methods in Enzymology has been split into 2 Parts and covers topics such as Measuring and Engineering Central Dogma Processes, Mathematical and Computational Methods and Next-Generation DNA Assembly and Manipulation. - Encompasses a variety of different approaches, methodologies and disciplines - Split into 2 parts and covers topics such as measuring and engineering central dogma processes, mathematical and computational methods and next-generation DNA assembly and manipulation

Advances in Cyanobacterial Biology presents the novel, practical, and theoretical aspects of cyanobacteria, providing a better understanding of basic and advanced biotechnological application in the field of sustainable agriculture. Chapters have been designed to deal with the different aspects of cyanobacteria including their role in the evolution of life, cyanobacterial diversity and classification, isolation, and characterization of cyanobacteria through biochemical and molecular approaches, phylogeny and biogeography of cyanobacteria, symbiosis, Cyanobacterial photosynthesis, morphological and physiological adaptation to abiotic stresses, stress-tolerant cyanobacterium, biological nitrogen fixation. Other topics include circadian rhythms, genetics and molecular biology of abiotic stress responses, application of cyanobacteria and cyanobacterial mats in wastewater treatments, use as a source of novel stress-responsive genes for development of stress tolerance and as a source of biofuels, industrial application, as biofertilizer, cyanobacterial blooms, use in Nano-technology and nanomedicines as well as potential applications. This book will be important for academics and researchers working in cyanobacteria, cyanobacterial environmental biology, cyanobacterial agriculture and cyanobacterial molecular biologists.

Many potential applications of synthetic and systems biology are relevant to the challenges associated with the detection, surveillance, and responses to emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases. On March 14 and 15, 2011, the Institute of Medicine's (IOM's) Forum on Microbial Threats convened a public workshop in Washington, DC, to explore the current state of the science of synthetic biology, including its dependency on systems biology; discussed the different approaches that scientists are taking to engineer, or reengineer, biological systems; and discussed how the tools and approaches of synthetic and systems biology were being applied to mitigate the risks associated with emerging infectious diseases. The Science and Applications of Synthetic and Systems Biology is organized into sections as a topic-by-topic distillation of the presentations and discussions that took place at the workshop. Its purpose is to present information from relevant experience, to delineate a range of pivotal issues and their respective challenges, and to offer differing perspectives on the topic as discussed and described by the workshop participants. This report also includes a collection of individually authored papers and commentary.

As the world struggles to reduce its dependence on fossil fuels and curb greenhouse gas emissions, industrial biotechnology is also ‘going green.’ Escherichia coli has long been used as a model Gram-negative bacterium, not only for fundamental research, but also for industrial applications. Recently, however, cyanobacteria have emerged as candidate chassis for the production of commodity fuels and chemicals, utilizing CO2 and sunlight as the main nutrient requirements. In addition to their potential for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and lowering production costs, cyanobacteria have naturally efficient pathways for the production metabolites such as carotenoids, which are of importance in the nutraceutical industry. The unique metabolic and regulatory pathways present in cyanobacteria present new challenges for metabolic engineers and synthetic biologists. Moreover, their requirement for light and the dynamic regulatory mechanisms of the diurnal cycle further complicate the development and application of cyanobacteria for industrial applications. Consequently, significant advancements in cyanobacterial engineering and strain development are necessary for the development of a ‘green E. coli’. This Research Topic will focus on cyanobacteria as organisms of emerging industrial relevance, including research focused on the development of genetic tools for cyanobacteria, the investigation of new cyanobacterial strains, the construction of novel cyanobacterial strains via genetic engineering, the application of ‘omics’ tools to advance the understanding of engineered cyanobacteria, and the development of computational models for cyanobacterial strain development.

This book addresses the design of emerging conceptual tools, technologies and systems including novel synthetic parts, devices, circuits, oscillators, biological gates, and small regulatory RNAs (riboregulators and riboswitches), which serve as versatile control elements for regulating gene expression. Synthetic biology, a rapidly growing field that involves the application of engineering principles in biology, is now being used to develop novel systems for a wide range of applications including diagnostics, cell reprogramming, therapeutics, enzymes, vaccines, biomaterials, biofuels, fine chemicals and many more. The book subsequently summarizes recent developments in technologies for assembling synthetic genomes, minimal genomes, synthetic biology toolboxes, CRISPR-Cas systems, cell-free protein synthesis systems and microfluidics. Accordingly, it offers a valuable resource not only for beginners in synthetic biology, but also for researchers, students, scientists, clinicians, stakeholders and policymakers interested in the potential held by synthetic biology.

Microalgae-Based Biofuels and Bioproducts: From Feedstock Cultivation to End Products compiles contributions from authors from different areas and backgrounds who explore the cultivation and utilization of microalgae biomass for sustainable fuels and chemicals. With a strong focus in emerging industrial and large scale applications, the book summarizes the new achievements in recent years in this field by critically evaluating developments in the field of algal biotechnology, whilst taking into account sustainability issues and techno-economic parameters. It includes information on microalgae cultivation, harvesting, and conversion processes for the production of liquid and gaseous biofuels, such as biogas, bioethanol, biodiesel and biohydrogen. Microalgae biorefinery and biotechnology applications, including for pharmaceuticals, its use as food and feed, and value added bioproducts are also covered. This book's comprehensive scope makes it an ideal reference for both early stage and consolidated researchers, engineers and graduate students in the algal field, especially in energy, chemical and environmental engineering, biotechnology, biology and agriculture. - Presents the most current information on the uses and untapped potential of microalgae in the production of bio-based fuels and chemicals - Critically reviews the state-of-the-art feedstock cultivation of biofuels and bioproducts mass production from microalgae, including intermediate stages, such as harvesting and extraction of specific compounds - Includes topics in economics and sustainability of large-scale microalgae cultivation and conversion technologies