Omics Approaches for Algal Applications

Algae grow faster due to their higher photosynthetic efficiency than terrestrial plants, making them more productive. Assimilating carbon dioxide and transforming it into chemical energy/value-added compounds including vitamins, carotenoids, fatty acids, proteins, and nucleic acids is the basis of microalgae and seaweeds (macroalgae) biorefinery, which has applications in bioenergy, health foods, aquaculture feed, pharmaceuticals, and medicine. During the course of the last several decades, a great number of research have been conducted with the goals of boosting the productiveness of algal growth and increasing the value-added substances that can be extracted from various algal species. In particular, genetic engineering, synthetic biology, metabolic design, and regulatory mechanisms have been the focus of these investigations. Among them, “omics” techniques have made significant contributions to improving the understanding on presenting massive data sets on microalgae and seaweeds genomes, transcriptomes, proteomes, and metabolomes. The regulation and network integration for the biosynthesis and degradation of metabolic precursors, intermediates, and end products are disentangled using omics-based strategies, and the networks that control the metabolic flow are identified. This chapter offers an overview of the potential of algae and their involvement in symbiotic association utilizing various omics methodologies, such as genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics. Additionally, applications in wastewater treatment, phycoremediation, biofuel generation, and medicines are critically examined using algae-based omics and multi-omics methodologies to present an impending prognosis for a variety of ecologically sound and commercially feasible algal applications.