Advances in microalgae engineering and synthetic biology applications for biofuel production

•Microalgae exhibit extraordinary diversity, biomass productivity, and oil content.•Genetic tools and synthetic biology have enabled extensive engineering of algae.•Photosynthetic efficiency has been improved by optimizing light and carbon capture.•Metabolic engineering has boosted the production of lipids, terpenoids, and H2.

Among the technologies being examined to produce renewable fuels, microalgae are viewed by many in the scientific community as having the greatest potential to become economically viable. Algae are capable of producing greater than 50,000 kg/acre/year of biomass [1]. Additionally, most algae naturally accumulate energy-dense oils that can easily be converted into transportation fuels. To reach economic parity with fossil fuels there are still several challenges. These include identifying crop protection strategies, improving harvesting and oil extraction processes, and increasing biomass productivity and oil content. All of these challenges can be impacted by genetic, molecular, and ultimately synthetic biology techniques, and all of these technologies are being deployed to enable algal biofuels to become economically competitive with fossil fuels.