Current Nuclear Engineering Strategies in the Green Microalga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii

The green model microalga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii recently emerged as a sustainable production chassis for the efficient biosynthesis of recombinant proteins and high-value metabolites. Its capacity for scalable, rapid and light-driven growth in minimal salt solutions, its simplicity for genetic manipulation and its Generally Recognized As Safe (GRAS) status are key features for its application in industrial biotechnology. Although nuclear transformation has typically resulted in limited transgene expression levels, recent developments now allow the design of powerful and innovative bioproduction concepts. In this review, we summarize the main obstacles to genetic engineering in C. reinhardtii and describe all essential aspects in sequence adaption and vector design to enable sufficient transgene expression from the nuclear genome. Several biotechnological examples of successful engineering serve as blueprints for the future establishment of C. reinhardtii as a green cell factory.

Automated summary

The green model microalga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii has emerged as a sustainable platform for the production of recombinant proteins and high-value metabolites. This review discusses the main obstacles in genetic engineering of C. reinhardtii and highlights the importance of sequence adaption and vector design for achieving sufficient transgene expression from the nuclear genome. Successful biotechnological examples serve as blueprints for establishing C. reinhardtii as a green cell factory in the future.