Recent Advances in Cyanobacterial Biotransformations

Light-driven biotransformations in recombinant cyanobacteria have been explored in recent years for the production of chiral compounds and platform chemicals. In particular, cyanobacteria harboring oxidoreductases proved to be sustainable hosts providing and recycling reducing equivalents and improving the atom economy of the reactions. However, the provision of light in photobioreactors is considered to be the major bottleneck for up-scaling. In this review, genetic tools for generating recombinant cyanobacterial strains and up to date cyanobacterial biotransformations including redesigning of the photosynthetic electron transport chain to increase specific activities are presented. Finally, several photobioreactor geometries to circumvent the light limitation are discussed and some future perspectives are presented.