Genetic Improvements in Microbial Cells

At present, production of SCP by mass culture of microorganisms is in its infancy. It needs much boost to solve the problem of starvation in the coming decades. One of the ways to enhance productivity and quality of SCP product is the genetic improvement of microorganisms. At Sosa Texcoco, Mexico, researches are in progress on production of genetically engineered cells, which can grow in alkaline environment even upto pH 8.0-10.0 and under the artificial conditions as well. Ciferri (1981) developed mutants of S. platensis, which had about 40 times more longer pools of certain amino acids than found in wild alga.

Moreover, transfer and expression of beneficial genes in the microorganisms have opened a new era for the production of algal proteins and other compounds to be used in food and feed. Rochaix and Van Dillerviger (1982) have successfully introduced genes of S. cerevisiae into Chlamydomonas reinhardii cells and got expression of fungal genes in algal cell.