Systems and synthetic biology for the biotechnological application of cyanobacteria

- Cyanobacteria attracted systems biology approaches early on, since they are evolutionary related to plastid in eukaryotic phototrophs and are increasingly used as green cell factories for the biotechnological production of biofuels and chemical feedstock.
- Various 'omics' technologies have been applied to model strains such as Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 leading to a systems understanding of cyanobacterial primary metabolism and its regulation.
- Recently, synthetic biology approaches are also applied to cyanobacteria enlarging their metabolic capabilities for biotechnological purposes.

Cyanobacteria are the only prokaryotes that perform oxygenic photosynthesis. Their evolutionary relation to plastids in eukaryotic phototrophs and their increasing utilization as green cell factories initiated the use of systems biology approaches early on. For select model strains, extensive 'omics' data sets have been generated, and genome-wide models have been elucidated. Moreover, the results obtained may be used for the optimization of cyanobacterial metabolism, which can direct the biotechnological production of biofuels or chemical feedstock. Synthetic biology approaches permit the rational construction of novel metabolic pathways that are based on the combination of multiple enzymatic activities of different origins. In addition, the manipulation of whole metabolic networks by CRISPR-based and sRNA-based technologies with multiple parallel targets will further stimulate the use of cyanobacteria for diverse applications in basic research and biotechnology.

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