Photoautotrophic production of renewable ethylene by engineered cyanobacteria: Steering the cell metabolism towards biotechnological use

Ethylene is a volatile hydrocarbon with massive global market in the plastic industry. The ethylene now used for commercial applications produced exclusively from nonrenewable petroleum sources, while competitive biotechnological production systems do not yet exist. This review focuses on currently developed photoautotrophic bioproduction strategies that enable direct solar-driven conversion of CO2 into ethylene, based use genetically engineered photosynthetic cyanobacteria expressing heterologous forming enzyme (EFE) Pseudomonas syringae. emphasis different engineering to express EFE and cellular carbon flux towards primary metabolite 2-oxoglutarate, highlighting associated metabolic constraints, technical considerations cultivation conditional parameters. While research field has progressed more robust strains better profiles, deeper understanding limitations, it clear there room significant improvement reach industrial relevance. At same time, existing information development synthetic biology tools open new possibilities improving prospects sustainable renewable ethylene.