Transgenic Microalgae as Green Cell Factories

Microalgae have been largely cultured and commercialized as food and feedadditives, and their potential as source of high-added value compounds is well known.But, in contrast to the large number of genetically modified bacteria, yeast and evenhigher plants, only a few species of microalgae have been genetically transformedwith efficiency. Initial difficulties in the expression of foreign genes in microalgaehave been progressively overcome, and powerful molecular tools for their geneticengineering are now on hand. A considerable collection of promoters and selectablemarker genes and an increasing number of genomic or cDNA sequences have becomeavailable in recent years. More work is needed to transform new species ofmicroalgae, specially those that have commercial value, so that it would be possibleto increase the productivity of traditional compounds or synthesize novel ones. Silencingtransgenes remains as an important limitation for stable expression of foreigngenes. This problem is not unique to microalgae since it has also been observedin plants, animals and fungi. A better understanding of the mechanisms that controlthe regulation of gene expression in eukaryotes is therefore needed.In this book a group of outstanding researchers working on different areas ofmicroalgae biotechnology offer a global vision of the genetic manipulation ofmicroalgae and their applications.