Cyanobacterial Lifestyle and its Applications in Biotechnology

Environmental change is affecting the world's agricultural productivity. This is coupled with an increase in population: according to the United Nations Department for Economic and Social Affairs, the global population is estimated to reach 9.7 billion by 2050.  Therefore, the current situation requires that we develop climate-smart technologies to improve crop productivity to sustain the ever-rising global population.  Current-day farmers are introducing a considerable amount of agrochemicals to enhance crop productivity.  Indiscriminate agrochemical application has altered not only the soil's physic-chemical and biological properties but also affected human health through food chain contamination.  Cyanobacteria, under these changing environmental conditions, may help to resolve the problem significantly without changing the natural soil properties.  In spite of their well-known stress tolerance potential, most of the cyanobacterial stress management and signaling pathways are yet to be fully characterized.  Therefore, there is an urgent need to explore cyanobacterial metabolism under stress as well as their regulatory pathways to exploit them for sustainable agriculture.  In recent decades, the application of cyanobacteria has attracted scientists because of uniqueness, better adaptability, and synthetic products.

Diverse cyanobacterial communities with the ability to fix atmospheric nitrogen, together with their photosynthetic properties, have demonstrated their application under field conditions.  Several cyanobacterial species have thus been exploited to enhance soil fertility, mitigate biotic and abiotic stress, and contamination management.

Cyanobacterial Lifestyle and its Applications in Biotechnology has been designed to discuss different aspects of cyanobacterial physiology with the aim of helping to provide a better understanding of advanced cyanobacterial molecular biology and their metabolism to uncover the potential of cyanobacteria in the tailoring of stress smart crops for sustainable agriculture.  Chapters include valuable information about the role of cyanobacteria in the evolution of life, cyanobacterial photosynthesis, stress-tolerant cyanobacterium, biological nitrogen fixation, circadian rhythms, genetics and molecular biology of abiotic stress responses.

1. Cyanobacterial diversity concerning the extreme environment and their bioprospecting Arun Kumar Kashyap, Sumit Kumar Dubey, and Buddhi Prakash Jain 2. Cyanobacterial nanoparticles: Application in agriculture and allied sectors Vaishali Gupta, Naveen Kumar Verma, and Kaushal Kishore Choudhary 3. Cyanobacterial photosynthetic reaction center in wobbly light: Modulation of light energy by orange carotenoid proteins (OCPs) Rahul Prasad Singh, Sandeep Kumar Singh, Ajay Kumar, Arpan Modi, Mukesh Kumar Yadav, Punuri Jayasekhar Babu, Garima Singh, Kaushlendra, Naveen Chandra Joshi, Avinash Chandra Rai, Sandip Ghuge, Anil Kumar, Avinash Singh, Prashant Kumar Singh, and Wenjing Wang 4. Back to the past: improving photosynthesis with cyanobacterial genes Rocío Arce, Paula Vicino, Mariana Demarchi, and Anabella Fernanda Lodeyro 5. Promises and challenges for expanding the use of N2-fixing cyanobacteria as a fertilizer for sustainable agriculture Rafael Ambrosio, Lara Sanchez Rizza, Mauro Do Nascimiento, Hugo Guillermo Jimenez Pacheco, Lilia Mary Miranda Ramos, Jose A. Hernandez, and Leonardo Curatti 6. Thermophilic and Thermotolerant Cyanobacteria: Environmental and Biotechnological Perspectives Gajanan T. Mehetre, Zothanpuia, Purbajyoti Deka, William Carrie, Lalrokimi, Bhim Pratap Singh 7. Exploring the ability of cyanobacterial ferric uptake regulator (FUR) proteins to increase yeast tolerance to abiotic stresses Violeta C. Sein-Echaluce, José Miguel Mulet, María V. Barja, M. Luisa Peleato, María F. Fillat 8. Exploring ecological diversity and biosynthetic potential of cyanobacteria for biofuel production Galyna Kufryk 9. Cyanobacterial availability for CRISPR-based genome editing: Current and future challenges Sandeep Kumar Singh, Ajay Kumar, Mukesh Kumar Yadav, Garima Singh, Punuri Jayasekhar Babu, Zothanpuia, Liansangmawii Chhakchhuak, Naveen Chandra Joshi, Avinash Chandra Rai, Avinash Singh,  Kaushlendra, Rosie Lalmuanpuii, Esther Lalnunmawii, Bendangchuchang Longchur, and Prashant Kumar Singh 10. Cyanobacteria and Salinity Stress Tolerance Rahul Prasad Singh, Priya Yadav, Reena Kujur, Kapil Deo Pandey, Rajan Kumar Gupta 11. Cyanobacteria as biostimulants in the paddy fields Prashant Kumar Singh, Ajay Kumar, Mukesh Kumar Yadav, Kushlendra, and Savita Singh 12. Molecular Characterization of Local Cyanobacterial Isolates Using 16S rRNA, rpoB And nifH Biomarkers Nidhi Kumari and Lal Chand Rai 13. Cyanobacteria-mediated heavy metal and xenobiotics bioremediation Shweta Pandey, Sumit Kumar Dubey, Arun Kumar Kashyap, and Buddhi Prakash Jain 14. Cyanobacteria: As a promising candidate for nanoparticles synthesis Dnyaneshwar K. Kulal, Dinesh N. Navale, Santosh W. Zote, Prasanna B. Ranade, and Pramod K. Kalambate

• Summarizes various aspects of cyanobacterial research.
• Includes comprehensive coverage of molecular approaches for the identification of cyanobacteria and their evolution.
• Identifies an expanding horizon of cyanobacterial lifestyle: stress management in cyanobacteria.
• Examines cyanobacteria synthetic biology, genetic engineering, photosynthesis and metabolic engineering.