Cyanobacteria are the ideal organisms for the production of a wide range of bioproducts as they can convert CO2 directly into the desired end product using solar energy. Unfortunately, the engineering of cyanobacteria to create efficient cell factories has been impaired by the cumbersome genetic tools that are currently available for these organisms; especially when trying to accumulate multipl...

We simulate pH-dependent growth of cyanobacteria with an ecosystem model for the central Baltic Sea. Four model components-a life cycle model of cyanobacteria, a biogeochemical model, a carbonate chemistry model and a water column model-are coupled via the framework for aquatic biogeochemical models. The coupled model is forced by the output of a regional climate model, based on the A1B emissio...

Cyanobacteria and cyanotoxins have been more and more studied during the last decades with regard to environment and health issues. More recently the consequences of climate change reinforced the need for research in view of a better management of cyanobacteria blooms. In this context the exploitation of the water quality survey of 26 recreational lakes in Brittany (north western France) betwee...

Cyanobacteria are oxygenic photosynthetic prokaryotes that play important roles in the global carbon cycle. Recently, engineered cyanobacteria capable of producing various small molecules from CO2 have been developed. However, cyanobacteria are seldom considered as factories for producing proteins, mainly because of the lack of efficient strong promoters. Here, we report the discovery and verif...

The cyanobacteria community dynamics in two eutrophic freshwater bodies (Tiegang Reservoir and Shiyan Reservoir) was studied with both a traditional microscopic counting method and a PCR-DGGE genotyping method. Results showed that cyanobacterium Phormidium tenue was the predominant species; twenty-six cyanobacteria species were identified in water samples collected from the two reservoirs, amon...

Cyanobacteria are a component of public health hazards in freshwater environments because of their potential as toxin producers. Eutrophication has long been considered the main cause of cyanobacteria outbreak and proliferation, whereas many studies emphasized the effect of abiotic parameters (mainly temperature and light) on cell growth rate or toxin production. In view of the growing concerns...

The toxicity of 7 herbicides to the three cyanobacteria was tested in this work. The results indicated that: (1) There was a highly significant relationship between dried weight or chlorophyll-a and OD680nm for tested cyanobacteria; (2) the toxicity of the tested herbicides with the order from high to low was: photosynthesis-inhibiting > ACCase inhibitor > protox inhibiting herbicides; (3) the ...

Modern cyanobacteria form a morphologically diversified group. In traditional taxonomy, morphological characters are used to divide them into five subsections [Rippka et al., 1979; Castenholz, 2001]. Cyanobacteria of subsection I (formerly order Chroococcales) and II (Pleurocapsales) are unicellular coccoids. Those of subsections III to V have filamentous forms with varying morphological comple...

Cyanobacteria are common inhabitants of freshwater lakes and reservoirs throughout the world. Under favourable conditions, certain cyanobacteria can dominate the phytoplankton within a waterbody and form nuisance blooms. Case reports and anecdotal references dating from 1949 describe a range of illnesses associated with recreational exposure to cyanobacteria: hay fever-like symptoms, pruritic s...

As the world struggles to reduce its dependence on fossil fuels and curb greenhouse gas emissions, industrial biotechnology is also " going green. " Escherichia coli has long been used as a model Gram-negative bacterium, not only for fundamental research but also for industrial applications. Recently, however, cyanobacteria have emerged as candidate chassis for the production of commodity fuels...