Landscape of microalgae omics and metabolic engineering research for strain improvement: An overview

The unique metabolic capabilities and fast growth rates of microalgae render them promising candidates for various industrial applications, such as biofuel production, pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals, and wastewater treatment. Metabolic engineering is a powerful approach used to enhance the sustainable production of high-value compounds in microalgae, improve their stress tolerance, growth characteristics and suitability for large-scale cultivation. This review provides a snapshot of the current state of knowledge on omics and metabolic engineering research to further enhance our understanding on microalgal metabolism and enable the development of optimized strains with improved productivity and functionality. More specifically, it focuses on the recent breakthroughs in microalgal omics, driven by advancements in genomics technologies, such as improved sequencing platforms and bioinformatics tools, that have enabled the functional characterization of key genes, identification of metabolic pathways, and elucidation of microalgae cell physiology. Conventional and state-of-the-art genetic engineering approaches used in the last decades to manipulate the metabolic pathways of microalgae in a targeted manner, are highlighted in the scope of microalgal optimization. In this review, the different applications of genetic engineering and their impact on microalgae industry are also discussed. Integrating pan-omics data in future research is crucial for predicting novel functional interactions and identifying aspects of metabolic flux, towards enhancing algal strain-engineering techniques.