Improving photosynthesis and metabolic networks for the competitive production of phototroph-derived biofuels

► Improving photosynthetic efficiency is a major obstacle to scaled biofuel production. ► Truncation of the light-harvesting antenna complex improves photon conversion efficiency. ► Development of starch excess C. reinhardtii strains is a bioenergy-relevant advance. ► A transcription factor has been implicated as a lipid-accumulation trigger. ► Successful homologous recombination has been reported in Nannochloropsis.