5 Conclusion and Future Prospective
Cyanobacteria are excellent accumulators or degraders of various environmental
contaminants such as dye, heavy metals, pesticides, and oil-containing compounds.
They are fast-growing and ubiquitous bio-agents, which can also be used for
capturing and storing of CO 2 that may also lead to climate change mitigations
through photosynthesis and biological calcification. They are also the ideal source
of variety of bioactive compounds with marked antagonistic properties. The
cyanobacteria are multifunctional bio-agents for safe and eco-friendly environmental
sustainability, along with several other uses. To improve their utility in bioremediation and associated sectors needs more attention. Thus there is an urgent need to
address certain key issues of exploiting cyanobacteria in the better way.
Since the use of cyanobacteria to produce valuable chemicals including food
supplements is still little explored, there seems a long way to go. In addition to
product developments, future research must address the strain improvement of
useful cyanobacteria to achieve high-quality food and fuel products and maintain
high growth rates and survival under harsh environmental conditions. The utility of
cyanobacteria in sustainable agriculture and environment can be enhanced by
genetic manipulations. However, the application of genetic engineering to improve
bio-fuel production in cyanobacteria is still in its infancy. In future, genetic and
metabolic engineering of cyanobacteria are likely to play important roles in improving the economics of cyanobacteria-mediated bio-fuel production. However, from
lab to field condition shift will not be as easy as it will require more efforts and
strategies according to the field condition. Additionally, new methods need to be
developed to allow the cultivation of previously uncultivable strains. The methods
should consider the organism’s requirements in the field, and these conditions should
be mimicked in the laboratory.
Numerous compounds that have antibacterial and antialgal activity have been
extracted from different species of cyanobacteria; however, only limited compounds
have been screened for their antifouling, antiviral, and antitumor activities. These
compounds are often present in small quantities, and in order to obtain sufficient
amounts, it is needed to harvest and extract many marine organisms.
Most of the commercial compounds were isolated from freshwater cyanobacteria.
Marine environments with different environmental conditions ranging from shallow
euphotic zone to deep-sea hydrothermal vents are likely to be a good source for a
variety of cyanobacterial species that may have high biotechnological and environmental significance.
References
Abed R, Köster J (2005) The direct role of aerobic heterotrophic bacteria associated with
cyanobacteria in the degradation of oil compounds. Int Biodeterior Biodegrad 55(1):29–37
Abed RMM, Dobretsov S, Sudesh K (2009) Applications of cyanobacteria in biotechnology. J
Apple Microbiol 106(1):1–12
406
S. Mona et al.
Cyanobacteria are excellent accumulators or degraders of various environmental
contaminants such as dye, heavy metals, pesticides, and oil-containing compounds.
They are fast-growing and ubiquitous bio-agents, which can also be used for
capturing and storing of CO 2 that may also lead to climate change mitigations
through photosynthesis and biological calcification. They are also the ideal source
of variety of bioactive compounds with marked antagonistic properties. The
cyanobacteria are multifunctional bio-agents for safe and eco-friendly environmental
sustainability, along with several other uses. To improve their utility in bioremediation and associated sectors needs more attention. Thus there is an urgent need to
address certain key issues of exploiting cyanobacteria in the better way.
Since the use of cyanobacteria to produce valuable chemicals including food
supplements is still little explored, there seems a long way to go. In addition to
product developments, future research must address the strain improvement of
useful cyanobacteria to achieve high-quality food and fuel products and maintain
high growth rates and survival under harsh environmental conditions. The utility of
cyanobacteria in sustainable agriculture and environment can be enhanced by
genetic manipulations. However, the application of genetic engineering to improve
bio-fuel production in cyanobacteria is still in its infancy. In future, genetic and
metabolic engineering of cyanobacteria are likely to play important roles in improving the economics of cyanobacteria-mediated bio-fuel production. However, from
lab to field condition shift will not be as easy as it will require more efforts and
strategies according to the field condition. Additionally, new methods need to be
developed to allow the cultivation of previously uncultivable strains. The methods
should consider the organism’s requirements in the field, and these conditions should
be mimicked in the laboratory.
Numerous compounds that have antibacterial and antialgal activity have been
extracted from different species of cyanobacteria; however, only limited compounds
have been screened for their antifouling, antiviral, and antitumor activities. These
compounds are often present in small quantities, and in order to obtain sufficient
amounts, it is needed to harvest and extract many marine organisms.
Most of the commercial compounds were isolated from freshwater cyanobacteria.
Marine environments with different environmental conditions ranging from shallow
euphotic zone to deep-sea hydrothermal vents are likely to be a good source for a
variety of cyanobacterial species that may have high biotechnological and environmental significance.
References
Abed R, Köster J (2005) The direct role of aerobic heterotrophic bacteria associated with
cyanobacteria in the degradation of oil compounds. Int Biodeterior Biodegrad 55(1):29–37
Abed RMM, Dobretsov S, Sudesh K (2009) Applications of cyanobacteria in biotechnology. J
Apple Microbiol 106(1):1–12
406
S. Mona et al.