3 Phycobiliproteins in Microalgae: Occurrence …
45
PBPs have great potential in food, biopolymers, colorants, pharmaceuticals,
cosmetics, molecular biology, and biomedical sciences (Mishra et al. 2012). PBPs
have auto-fluorescent nature, so it can be used for the development of fluorescence compounds for various biomedical, pharmaceutics, and experimental molecular biology (Eriksen 2008). Worldwide, several patents have been reported on the
broad application of PBPs (Sekar and Chandramohan 2008). Many companies have
initiated the development of value-added products from PBPs (Sekar and Chandramohan 2008). This chapter highlights the distribution of PBPs among cyanobacteria, biosynthetic machinery, production and commercial utilization of value-added
PBPs in various fields of sciences.
3.2 Ecological Distribution of Microalgae
Cyanobacteria are the most ancient obligate photosynthetic prokaryotic organisms
(Wood et al. 2008). They originated on early Earth surface about 2.8–3.5 billion
years ago and presently have cosmopolitan distribution ranging from hot to cold
water habitats (Fischer 2008). They are important primary producers and carbon
fixers in both aquatic as well as terrestrial ecosystems and contribute immensely in
net primary productivity (Häder et al. 2007). Cyanobacteria are well known for their
role in global CO 2 and nitrogen fixation (Singh et al. 2010) and oxygen production
(Parmar et al. 2011). Atmospheric nitrogen-fixing property of cyanobacteria makes
them ecologically valuable as they increase the biomass and productivity of crop
plants (Vaishampayan et al. 2001). As cyanobacteria reside in a variety of adverse
habitats, they are also used for the reclamation of desert soil. Cyanobacteria are
also a better substitute for commercially available N-fertilizer, whose production
needs a huge amount of fossil fuels (Grizeau et al. 2016). Solar spectrum mainly
consists of visible radiation (PAR; 400–700 nm) and ultraviolet (UV; 100–400 nm)
radiation. Moreover, ultraviolet radiation consists of ultraviolet-B radiation (UV-B,
280–315 nm) which is deleterious to living organisms and causes several inhibitory
effects on biological organisms (Sinha et al. 1995, Häder et al. 2011, Paul et al.
2012). Cyanobacteria are directly exposed to deleterious UV-B radiation due to
their photoautotrophic nature and hence the most important photosynthetic and
nitrogen-fixing abilities of cyanobacteria may be impaired (Cassier-Chauvat and
Chauvat 2015). However, nucleic acids and proteins are more susceptible to damage
by the high intensity of UV-B irradiation (Rastogi et al. 2010). UV-B irradiation
also adversely affects the key physiological and biochemical life processes, such
as morphology, growth, development, heterocyst frequency, pigmentation, motility
and orientation, N 2 metabolism, phycobiliproteins composition, lipid peroxidation,
14 CO 2 uptake, membrane permeability, PS-II activity, nutrient uptake, and various
other metabolic processes of cyanobacteria (Sinha et al. 2002, Rastogi et al. 2012,
Singh et al. 2013, Kannaujiya et al. 2017d).
45
PBPs have great potential in food, biopolymers, colorants, pharmaceuticals,
cosmetics, molecular biology, and biomedical sciences (Mishra et al. 2012). PBPs
have auto-fluorescent nature, so it can be used for the development of fluorescence compounds for various biomedical, pharmaceutics, and experimental molecular biology (Eriksen 2008). Worldwide, several patents have been reported on the
broad application of PBPs (Sekar and Chandramohan 2008). Many companies have
initiated the development of value-added products from PBPs (Sekar and Chandramohan 2008). This chapter highlights the distribution of PBPs among cyanobacteria, biosynthetic machinery, production and commercial utilization of value-added
PBPs in various fields of sciences.
3.2 Ecological Distribution of Microalgae
Cyanobacteria are the most ancient obligate photosynthetic prokaryotic organisms
(Wood et al. 2008). They originated on early Earth surface about 2.8–3.5 billion
years ago and presently have cosmopolitan distribution ranging from hot to cold
water habitats (Fischer 2008). They are important primary producers and carbon
fixers in both aquatic as well as terrestrial ecosystems and contribute immensely in
net primary productivity (Häder et al. 2007). Cyanobacteria are well known for their
role in global CO 2 and nitrogen fixation (Singh et al. 2010) and oxygen production
(Parmar et al. 2011). Atmospheric nitrogen-fixing property of cyanobacteria makes
them ecologically valuable as they increase the biomass and productivity of crop
plants (Vaishampayan et al. 2001). As cyanobacteria reside in a variety of adverse
habitats, they are also used for the reclamation of desert soil. Cyanobacteria are
also a better substitute for commercially available N-fertilizer, whose production
needs a huge amount of fossil fuels (Grizeau et al. 2016). Solar spectrum mainly
consists of visible radiation (PAR; 400–700 nm) and ultraviolet (UV; 100–400 nm)
radiation. Moreover, ultraviolet radiation consists of ultraviolet-B radiation (UV-B,
280–315 nm) which is deleterious to living organisms and causes several inhibitory
effects on biological organisms (Sinha et al. 1995, Häder et al. 2011, Paul et al.
2012). Cyanobacteria are directly exposed to deleterious UV-B radiation due to
their photoautotrophic nature and hence the most important photosynthetic and
nitrogen-fixing abilities of cyanobacteria may be impaired (Cassier-Chauvat and
Chauvat 2015). However, nucleic acids and proteins are more susceptible to damage
by the high intensity of UV-B irradiation (Rastogi et al. 2010). UV-B irradiation
also adversely affects the key physiological and biochemical life processes, such
as morphology, growth, development, heterocyst frequency, pigmentation, motility
and orientation, N 2 metabolism, phycobiliproteins composition, lipid peroxidation,
14 CO 2 uptake, membrane permeability, PS-II activity, nutrient uptake, and various
other metabolic processes of cyanobacteria (Sinha et al. 2002, Rastogi et al. 2012,
Singh et al. 2013, Kannaujiya et al. 2017d).