Recent advances and challenges of the use of cyanobacteria towards the production of biofuels

Higher oil prices and the necessity for long-term energy security have increased the public and scientific attention on the production of biofuels. Bioenergy is much cleaner, safer, and more economical source of energy than fossil-based fuels. Of several organisms, cyanobacteria are attractive source of biofuels because of their genetic tractability, photosynthetic capability and lack of dependency on fertile land. Synthetic biology and metabolic engineering approaches have been successfully used towards the production of biofuels including ethanol, butanol, biodiesel and hydrogen. This review highlights the recent advances of pathway engineering and uses of synthetic biology tools in cyanobacteria for the production of economical and ecologically biofuels.