Figure 2.

Genetic engineering in algae. Algae can be genetically engineered to improve the production of native antiviral compounds or introduce the biosynthetic pathway for those not produced in algae; moreover, they can be used as biofactories of biopharmaceuticals. The genomes at the nucleus and chloroplast can be engineered with specific genes to achieve the desired trait. The main challenges are genetic instability and low expression often observed in the transformed strains, which can be overcome by using site-directed insertion of the foreign DNA, inducible promoters, and optimized regulatory sequences.