Chlamydomonas reinhadtii as a novel photobioreactor to produce recombinant proteins

Microalgae are microscopic algae found in a wide range of habitats including freshwater and marine systems. Over the last decades, biotechnological processes based on microalgae have been receiving increasing interest due to their potential to produce large quantities of valuable products used as human food supplements, pharmaceuticals and animal feed. Microalgae have also been proved as an efficient and cost-effective platform for recombinant protein production. Most progress in this field has been achieved using Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, a photosynthetic unicellular alga which has been mostly considered as a model organism in different studies. High growth rate, ease of cultivation, well-established genetics and the ability to perform post-translational modifications are the most beneficial attributes that have made C. reinhardtii an attractive system for the expression of recombinant proteins. In this review, we focus on C. reinhardtii as a novel platform for the development of advanced recombinant products and compare them with other commonly used expression systems. We also present a comprehensive overview of its structure, life cycle, culture systems, and media in detail and then discuss the strategies for engineering its three different genomes to produce recombinant cells. Finally, algal culture collections in the world are introduced.