Genetic engineering of algae

Abstract Algae are a group of diverse photosynthetic organisms. Recent advances in genetic engineering have established algae as a platform for heterologous protein expression and biofuel production. Several species of algae have been genetically transformed for various environmental and industrial applications ranging from biofuels and pharmaceutics to wastewater treatment. In this chapter, we summarize the widely used tools applied for the genetic engineering of algae, methods for genetic manipulation of the nuclear as well as chloroplast genomes, and various applications of the transgenic algae.