PREFACE

Highlights from the Indo-US workshop ‘‘Cyanobacteria:molecular networks to biofuels’’ held at Lonavala, Indiaduring December 16–20, 2012

Louis A. Sherman • Pramod P. Wangikar •

Renu Swarup • Sangita Kasture

Published online: 19 October 2013

� Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2013

Abstract An Indo-US workshop on ‘‘Cyanobacteria:

molecular networks to biofuels’’ was held December

16–20, 2012 at Lagoona Resort, Lonavala, India. The

workshop was jointly organized by two of the authors,

PPW, a chemical engineer and LAS, a biologist, thereby

ensuring a broad and cross-disciplinary participation. The

main objective of the workshop was to bring researchers

from academia and industry of the two countries together

with common interests in cyanobacteria or microalgae and

derived biofuels. An exchange of ideas resulted from a

series of oral and poster presentations and, importantly,

through one-on-one discussions during tea breaks and

meals. Another key objective was to introduce young

researchers of India to the exciting field of cyanobacterial

physiology, modeling, and biofuels. PhD students and early

stage researchers were especially encouraged to participate

and about half of the 75 participants belonged to this cat-

egory. The rest were comprised of senior researchers,

including 13–15 invited speakers from each country.

Overall, twenty-four institutes from 12 states of India were

represented. The deliberations, which are being compiled

in the present special issue, revolved mainly around

molecular aspects of cyanobacterial biofuels including

metabolic engineering, networks, genetic regulation, cir-

cadian rhythms, and stress responses. Representatives of

some key funding agencies and industry provided a per-

spective and opportunities in the field and for bilateral

collaboration. This article summarizes deliberations that

took place at the meeting and provides a bird’s eye view of

the ongoing research in the field in the two countries.

Keywords Cyanobacteria � Metabolism � Biofuels �Metabolic modeling � Indo-US exchange � Molecular

networks

Introduction

The progressively increasing rate of consumption of fossil

fuels poses serious problems of their eventual exhaustion

and adverse impact on climate, such as global warming and

greenhouse gases. This has led to research efforts on

alternative energy sources, including those derived from

biomass. Of the several different biofuel platforms, cya-

nobacteria and microalgae show great potential because of

their ability to accumulate biomass much faster than ter-

restrial crops. They also have the ability to grow on mar-

ginal land using brackish water, thus avoiding competition

with food and feed crops for land or water resources.

Researchers estimate that photosynthetic microorganisms,

such as cyanobacteria and algae, could potentially yield

over 50,000 l of biofuels per hectare per year in compari-

son to about 200–450 l from crops such as soya and canola

(Savage 2011).

Algae harness solar energy via photosynthesis and capture

and transform CO2 into an array of carbon compounds that

L. A. Sherman (&)

Department of Biological Sciences, Lilly Hall of Life Sciences,

Purdue University, 915 W. State St, West Lafayette,

IN 47907, USA

e-mail: lsherman@purdue.edu

P. P. Wangikar (&)

Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of

Technology Bombay, Powai, Mumbai 400076, India

e-mail: wangikar@iitb.ac.in

R. Swarup � S. Kasture

Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science &

Technology, Government of India, Block No: 2, 7th Floor,

CGO Complex, Lodi Road, New Delhi 110003, India

123

Photosynth Res (2013) 118:1–8

DOI 10.1007/s11120-013-9933-z

can be used as biofuels. Among the different kinds of algae,

unicellular microalgae have attracted much attention for

biofuel production efforts as they can be grown and manip-

ulated readily. By microalgae, we loosely refer to two very

distinct categories of organisms in this article, the eukaryotic

microalgae and prokaryotic cyanobacteria (previously

known as blue-green algae). Several of the eukaryotic mic-

roalgae have the ability to accumulate high levels of intra-

cellular lipid or algal oil, which can be harvested and

subsequently converted to usable liquid biofuels (Maslova

et al. 2004; Sharma et al. 2012). Although this appears to be a

ready recipe for production of biofuels in algal ponds, there

are several challenges. Specifically, eukaryotic microalgal

strains either do not produce sufficient quantities of oil or

they produce oil under stress conditions when growth rate is

seriously compromised (Pan et al. 2011). Further, eukaryotic

microalgae are difficult to manipulate genetically. Cyano-

bacteria on the other hand, grow much faster, are tolerant to

high temperatures and salt, and are more readily amenable to

genetic manipulations. Cyanobacteria are a group of photo-

synthetic prokaryotes that are credited for their role in con-

verting the anoxic atmosphere to the current oxic

environment (Kasting 2001). Although cyanobacteria do not

produce large quantities of lipid in the form of storage

molecules, they can be engineered to produce other, more

readily usable liquid biofuels such as ethanol and butanol

(Lan and Liao 2011; Quintana et al. 2011). Although proof of

principle studies have been reported for cyanobacterial

biofuels, substantial improvements are needed to achieve the

performance targets for commercial success. The current

challenges include low levels of biofuel and tolerance to

stresses such as temperature, salt, and solvents. Taken

together, although algal biofuels hold promise, several

technological breakthroughs are needed before they can

economically compete with the current non-renewable (and

some renewable) energy sources.

An Indo-US workshop on ‘‘Cyanobacteria: molecular

networks to biofuels’’ was organized to catalyze scientific

exchange between the two countries on this promising

topic. Apart from inviting experts in the field, an attempt

was made to encourage young researchers to participate

and present their results at the workshop. Approximately

half of the 75 participants were either PhD students or post-

doctoral fellows (see Fig. 1 for a group photograph of all

participants). Several of the well-known researchers from

India and USA attended the workshop and delivered invi-

ted talks (Fig. 2 is a group photograph of the invited

speakers from the USA). The workshop revolved around

cyanobacteria as a platform for biofuel production with a

few presentations on eukaryotic microalgae (Tables 1, 2).

The workshop included 29 invited talks, 12 short talks, and

32 posters, as well as extensive discussions. The presen-

tations covered diverse topics that included: cyanobacteria

and microalgae as platforms for biofuel production; the

molecular mechanisms for carbon and nitrogen fixation in

cyanobacteria; annotation of novel metabolic and genetic

networks; conversion of fixed carbon dioxide to biofuels,

including drop-in fuels and other high value products; the

carbon concentration mechanism in cyanobacteria; high

cell density cultivation; genomic and proteomic studies;

studies on cyanobacterial circadian rhythms and gene

regulation; metabolic flux analysis; photosynthetic effi-

ciencies of cyanobacteria; isolation and characterization of

cyanobacteria and microalgae from diverse and extreme

habitats; photo-regulation and photo-protection mecha-

nisms, and genetic engineering in cyanobacteria and mic-

roalgae (Table 2). A number of talks covered aspects

related to modeling and simulation of biological networks.

The deliberations lasted for a total of 4 days and comprised

several sessions (Table 1).

Inaugural session: perspectives

The workshop opened with an inaugural session chaired by

Santanu Dasgupta of Reliance Industries Limited, Mumbai,

India; and the speakers at this session are shown in Fig. 3.

The session began with inaugural remarks by the coordi-

nators of the workshop, Pramod P. Wangikar and Louis A.

Sherman. The co-coordinators shared their views on how the

computational and engineering skills of Indian researchers

will complement the molecular biological expertise of the

US scientists for a successful collaboration in the field of

algal biofuels. This was followed by a talk entitled

‘‘Research challenges in algae based bioenergy-industrial

perspective’’ by Makarand Phadke. He provided an over-

view of the present status and the future scope of the field

from the viewpoint of Reliance Industries Limited, one of

the world’s largest private sector enterprises, and one

involved in the exploration and production of oil and gas,

petroleum refining and marketing, petrochemicals, and now

in biofuels. He reassured the audience that the sector

enjoyed excellent commercial prospects while emphasizing

a need for intense academic and industrial research to

overcome key challenges, including those in scaling up and

harvesting. This was followed by talks from representatives

from key research funding agencies in India and the USA,

Rajiv Sharma, Parag Chitnis, and Sangita Kasture. Rajiv

Sharma provided an overview of the various initiatives of

Indo-US Science and Technology Forum (IUSSTF) for

bilateral research activities between India and the USA.

Parag Chitnis introduced the audience to the broad mandate

of National Science Foundation (NSF) and a large number

of research activities that this independent US government

agency supports. He elaborated on various activities sup-

ported by NSF on national front in the USA such as National

2 Photosynth Res (2013) 118:1–8

123

Science Advisory Board on Biosecurity, National Research

Council, Interagency working group of double-stranded

synthetic DNAs, Presidential Commission for the Study of

Bioethical Issues to name a few. He also listed various

international activities in which NSF engaged, such as EC-

US Task Force on Biotechnology Research, which supports

work on synthetic biology. He also talked in detail about

NSF’s program, Science Across Virtual Institutes (SAVI),

which facilitates exchange of research ideas and resources

among US researchers and also with their international

collaborators.

Sangita Kasture gave a detailed overview of the numerous

research activities supported by Department of biotechnol-

ogy (DBT). She pointed out that Government of India has

identified biofuel as a thrust area. Further, policies are being

formulated to increase the proportion of bio-ethanol blend in

petrol from the current 5 to 20 % by the year 2017. She gave

an in-depth analysis of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities,

and threats for the future of biofuels in India from the Indian

Fig. 1 Group photograph with

all the invited speakers and

registered participants

Fig. 2 Group photograph of the invited speakers from the USA along

with the workshop coordinators: standing (from left): Jamie Foster,

Michelle Liberton, and Susan Cohen; Seated (from left): Cheryl

Kerfeld, Beronda Montgomery, John Morgan, Pramod P. Wangikar,

Louis A. Sherman, Wim F. J. Vermaas, and Robert Burnap

Table 1 List of day-wise technical sessions

Day 1: December 16 2012

Session 1: Perspectives on algal biofuels (Chair: Santanu

Dasgupta)

Day 2: December 17, 2012

Session II: Platforms for biofuels (Chair: John Morgan)

Poster Session I (Chair: Jamie Foster)

Session III: Applications beyond biofuels (Chair: Jess Leber)

Day 3: December 18, 2012

Session IV: Rhythm and omics (Chair: Don Bryant)

Poster session II (Chair: LC Rai)

Session V: Modeling and systems biology (Chair: Robert

Burnap)

Day 4: December 19, 2012

Session VI: Photosynthesis and carbon fixation (Chair: Wim

Vermaas)

Session VII: Microalgae for biofuels (Chair: Cheryl Kerfeld)

Day 5: December 20, 2012

Session VIII: Chair-Debasish Das

Session IX: Plenary discussion on ‘‘The Way Ahead’’ (Chairs:

Louis A Sherman and Shree K Apte)

Photosynth Res (2013) 118:1–8 3

123

government perspective. She also elaborated on the crucial

role played by DBT in coordinating the R&D effort within an

interagency committee involving diverse ministries includ-

ing Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Defense, Ministry of

New and Renewable Energy, Ministry of Petroleum and

Natural Gas, and Ministry of Science and Technology. DBT

promotes innovation in the bio-energy sector by means of

fostering partnerships between then public and private sec-

tors, enabling intellectual property generation and protec-

tion, promoting infrastructure development, and promoting

Table 2 List of invited speakers, affiliations, and titles of

presentations

Speaker Title of talk

Representatives from funding agencies

Parag Chitnis, National

Science Foundation, USA

Systems and synthetic

biology:NSF perspective

Rajiv Sharma, Indo-US

Science and Technology

Forum

INDO-US Science & Technology

Forum: opportunities for

building and strengthening Indo-

US Science, Technology and

Innovation interactions

Sangita Kasture, Department

of Biotechnology, Government

of India

Government policies for

promotion of R&D in biofuels

Representatives from industry

Jess Leber, Joule Unlimited,

USA

Cyanobacterial production of

drop-in fuels

Makarand Phadke, Reliance

Industries Ltd., India

Research challenges in algae

based bioenergy—industrial

perspective

Santanu Datta, Cellworks,

India

Dynamic modeling of E. coli:

applications in anti-infective

drug discovery and whole cell

biotransformation

Senthil Chinnasamy, Aban

Infrastructure Pvt. Ltd., India

Cyanobacteria for biofuel and

bioenergy applications

Representatives from US academia

Beronda Montgomery,

Michigan State University

Photoregulatory mechanisms

controlling photomorphogenesis

and resource allocation in

cyanobacteria

Cheryl Kerfeld, DOE Joint

Genome Institute

The cyanobacterial carbon

concentrating mechanism.

Don Bryant, Penn State

University

Synechococcus sp. PCC 7002: a

robust, versatile, and

cosmopolitan cyanobacterial

platform for biofuels production

James Liao, University of

California Los Angeles

Carbon dioxide fixation and

conversion to fuels

Jamie Foster, University of

Florida

Molecular mechanisms of

carbonate mineralization in

cyanobacteria-dominated

microbialites

John Morgan, Purdue

University

Metabolic flux profiling for

Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 by

isotopically nonstationary flux

analysis

Louis Sherman, Purdue

University

Genomic, proteomic and

metabolic properties of the

diazotrophic cyanobacterial

genus Cyanothece and

relationship to H2 production

Michelle Liberton,

Washington University-St.

Louis

Strategies to probe and optimize

light-harvesting and

photosynthetic productivity in

cyanobacteria

Robert Burnap, Oklahoma

State University

Regulation of the inorganic carbon

concentrating mechanism

(CCM) in cyanobacteria.

Table 2 continued

Speaker Title of talk

Susan Cohen, University of

California San Diego

Elucidating the relationship

between the circadian and cell

cycles in cyanobacteria

Wim Vermaas, Arizona State

University

Cyanobacteria as solar-powered

biocatalysts that produce and

excrete useful compounds

Representatives from Indian academia

Debasish Das, IIT Guwahati Biochemical characterization of a

new isolate Chlorella sp. FC2

IITG as a cell factory for

biodiesel production

Ganesh Viswanathan, IIT

Bombay

SHARP: A novel PSI-BLAST

based approach for annotation of

metabolic network of

prokaryotes

K V Venkatesh, IIT Bombay Cross linking steady state

response of gene regulatory

networks to metabolism as

applied to anaerobic growth of

Escherichia coli

Lal Chand Rai, Banaras Hindu

University

Proteomic and Genomics

Approaches unveil Arsenic

toxicity and detoxification of in

Anabaena

Pramod P. Wangikar, IIT

Bombay

Oscillations in metabolism and

gene expression in Cyanothece

sp. ATCC 51142

R Rengasamy, University of

Madras

Potential of microalgae for biofuel

production

S Shamugasundaram, Madurai

Kamaraj University

Metabolic engineering of E. coli

and Synechocystis 6803 for the

production of ethylene and

isoprene

Sandeep B. Gaudana, IIT

Bombay

Effect of carbon dioxide

concentration on mixotrophic

growth of Cyanothece sp. ATCC

51142

Shashi Kumar, ICGEB Genetic engineering approaches in

algae for enhanced biofuel

production

Shree K Apte, Bhabha Atomic

Research Centre

Stress biology and biotechnology

of nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria

Sudip Kundu, University of

Calcutta

Modeling the rice leaf metabolism

at various conditions

4 Photosynth Res (2013) 118:1–8

123

synergy between inter-disciplinary fields. The public and

private sector partnerships are promoted through vital ini-

tiatives under the umbrella of Biotechnology Industry

Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) and Small Business

Innovation Research Initiative (SBIRI) Scheme. DBT has

also established multidisciplinary centers such as DBT-ICT

Centre for Energy Biosciences, DBT-IOC Centre for

Advanced Bio-energy Research and DBT-ICGEB Centre for

Advanced Bio-energy Research with state of art research

facilities for cutting-edge research in bio-energy sector.

Besides lignocellulosic ethanol, DBT has identified algal

biofuels as one of the priority areas. Studies have been ini-

tiated to collect, identify, and characterize algal strains

greater lipid content. Twelve national laboratories/institu-

tions/universities from across the country are involved in this

algal network program. Three culture repositories have been

established at IBSD-Imphal, NFMC-Trichy, & IMMT-

Bhubaneswar with collection of more than 2,000 cyano-

bacteria and 600 green algae from marine and fresh water

sources from different parts of the India (Priya et al. 2010,

2011). All the strains in the repository have been identified

based on morphological characterization with molecular

characterization underway for several of the strains. Based

on lipid content, promising strains have been identified and

further taken up for optimization of yield either in lab

scale photobioreactor or in open raceway pond facility

(30,000 l each) created at IMMT-Bhubaneswar. Various

R&D projects are being supported by DBT for improvements

in lipid and biomass yields with algae and cyanobacteria.

Sangita Kasture reemphasized the commitment of the Indian

government to provide the required support to catalyze the

exploitation of opportunities in the bio-energy sector.

The presence of prominent representatives from the key

Government agencies, such as IUSSTF and DBT, acted as

encouragement for young participants and provided them

with details regarding various fellowship schemes and

research funding opportunities.

The technical sessions spanned three and a half days and

were comprised of insightful presentations followed by

extensive discussions covering a myriad of aspects related

to advanced knowhow on biofuel from cyanobacteria and

microalgae.

Platforms for biofuels

Donald Bryant talked on approaches toward developing robust

and versatile biofuel platforms by genetically engineering

model cyanobacteria. He explained the importance of the

photosystem I to photosystem II ratio in the cyanobacterial

strain, Synechococcus sp. PCC 7002, and its role in deciding its

rate of growth (Nomura et al. 2006). He presented the physio-

logical and molecular details pertaining to Synechococcus sp.

PCC 7002, a strain that his lab has worked with for many years

and also an important model system (Ludwig and Bryant 2012;

Xu et al. 2013). James Liao gave an in-depth understanding of

ways to channel the fixed carbon from CO2 toward the desired

biofuel (Gronenberg et al. 2013). Wim Vermaas gave an

overview of the present day challenges that must be overcome

before we can establish cyanobacteria as platforms for biofuels

and other useful compounds. He presented the schemes they are

implementing for maximal conversion of carbon to useful end

products, such as fatty acids, through metabolic engineering

(Gonzalez-Esquer and Vermaas 2013). Jess Leber presented

Fig. 3 Speakers at the

inaugural session. Top row

(from left): Pramod

P. Wangikar, Louis A. Sherman,

Santanu Dasgupta (Sesion

Chairperson), and Makarand

Phadke. Bottom row (from left):

Rajiv Sharma, Parag Chitnis,

and Sangita Kasture

Photosynth Res (2013) 118:1–8 5

123

the approach that is exploited for the production of biofuel from

cyanobacteria under extreme high light intensity and dense

culture conditions. The speakers representing the Indian

Industries, such as Santanu Datta and Senthil Chinnasamy gave

an overview on their respective areas of in silico simulations in

microorganisms for their effective understanding, and the

applications of cyanobacteria in biofuel production, respec-

tively. Rengasamy, University of Madras, gave an extensive

overview of salt tolerance and lipid production studies in var-

ious isolates of freshwater and marine microalgae. He shared

his experience of cultivating select isolates in open raceway

pond for mass cultivation and lipid production.

Circadian rhythm

Louis Sherman gave an account of the physiological, met-

abolic, and molecular understanding of unicellular, nitro-

gen-fixing cyanobacteria of the genus Cyanothece. He

touched upon results from his own lab and from the labs of

his close collaborators (Bandyopadhyay et al. 2010;

McDermott et al. 2011; Stockel et al. 2008; Toepel et al.

2008). He emphasized the genomics of the seven sequenced

Cyanothece strains and the exquisite regulation of gene

transcription throughout the day and night. Pramod Wan-

gikar emphasized the optimization of growth conditions for

Cyanothece sp. ATCC 51142 that included uniform and

optimal lighting and aeration for a precise understanding of

circadian rhythms based on metabolism and gene expres-

sion (Krishnakumar et al. 2013a; Memon et al. 2013). He

demonstrated some interesting aspects of robustness in the

circadian rhythm in this organism in the absence of external

light/dark cues. Sandeep Gaudana talked about influence of

mixotrophy and elevated carbon dioxide on circadian

rhythm in Cyanothece 51142 (Gaudana et al. 2013). Susan

Cohen, a postdoctoral researcher in the lab of Susan Golden,

revealed some fascinating aspects of circadian rhythms in

another model cyanobaterium, Synechococcus sp. PCC

7942, and presented her recent results that elucidate the

relationship between the circadian clock and cell division.

Network modeling and omics

John Morgan discussed his new technique for metabolic flux

profiling for Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 by isotopically

nonstationary flux analysis. He described the computational

tools developed by him and his collaborators that will permit

comprehensive flux analysis during photoautotrophic

growth, which is an important breakthrough for modeling of

photosynthetic metabolism relating to biofuels. The Indian

scientists made a number of presentations on the theme of

network modeling. Ganesh Viswanathan talked about an

approach leading to annotations of a large number of novel

pathways in various cyanobacterial species (Krishnakumar

et al. 2013b). KV Venkatesh presented his work on con-

necting the mRNA and protein expression levels to the

metabolic network to predict the fluxes in reactions in the

central metabolic pathway in Escherichia coli. The meth-

odology links the steady states of the genetic regulatory

network and metabolic network to characterize the pheno-

type. With this approach, phenotypic states of mutants

emerging from deletion can be predicted. Santanu Datta

presented his work on understanding how intracellular per-

turbations occur due to inhibition of essential metabolic

pathways. He also spoke about an in silico platform built by

integrating major pathways in E. coli and Mycobacterium

tuberculosis. Sudip Kundu presented his work on a partially

compartmentalized, photoautotrophic genome scale meta-

bolic model of rice metabolism. The model consists of more

than 1,300 metabolites participating in nearly 1,500 reac-

tions. Flux balance analysis (FBA) was used to analyze the

metabolic capability of the rice model. LC Rai presented

differential protein expression work from cyanobacterial

strains exposed to heavy metals such as arsenic (Narayan

et al. 2010).

Applications beyond biofuels

Some of the talks touched upon the ancillary aspects and

other applications in which cyanobacteria are being

explored, ranging from bioremediation to bio-fertilizers as

well as understanding the evolution of life forms on our

planet. Jamie Foster presented the metatranscriptomic ana-

lysis of several sections through cyanobacterial mats that

provided useful information regarding carbon fixation by

such marine microbial communities (Khodadad and Foster

2012; Mobberley et al. 2012). Photosynthetic microbial mats

generate carbonate deposits that result from the metabolic

activities of these cells and they provide important clues into

the sequestration of carbon in the biosphere, as well as into

the evolution of life. Shree Kumar Apte elaborated on results

from his lab on response of Anabaena to various stresses such

as nutritional deficiency, salinity, desiccation, heat, pesti-

cides, heavy metals, and oxidative stress. This has also led to

identification and demonstration of a few candidate genes

that are important for stress tolerance.

Photosynthesis and carbon fixation

There were a series of presentations on photosynthesis and

carbon fixation, an area that once represented a strong area of

research in India. The session was initiated with a talk from

Cheryl Kerfeld who has done some pioneering work on the

6 Photosynth Res (2013) 118:1–8

123

structure of the carboxysome (Kinney et al. 2012; Kirilovsky

and Kerfeld 2012). The carboxysome is a carbon concen-

trating mechanism (CCM) that contains RuBisCO and car-

bonic anhydrase and provides an elevated level of CO2 for

RuBisCO. Her lab has isolated and crystallized specific

proteins to understand how they assemble into 3-D struc-

tures. Robert Burnap followed with a talk on the regulation of

the CCM from a metabolic and molecular perspective (Daley

et al. 2012). His presentation revolved around the hypothesis

that there is a tight integration through specific regulatory

interactions between photosynthetic metabolites and tran-

scriptional factors that control the structural genes and form

the inducible CCM. He showed that depletion of NADP? and

a-ketoglutarate results in the de-repression of CCM genes

when inorganic carbon is limiting.

Beronda Montgomery spoke on the way in which pho-

toregulatory mechanisms control resource allocation and

photomorphogenesis in a filamentous, chromatic-adapting

cyanobacterium. This work addresses how light of different

wavelengths can lead to different accessory pigments and

also affect cellular morphology (Singh and Montgomery

2013). She also demonstrated that light-dependent accu-

mulation of reactive-oxygen species can be correlated with

cell shape and she has begun to identify the genes involved

in this important adaptation to stress. Michelle Liberton

concentrated on research looking into improving light

efficiency in photosynthesis by manipulating the size and

nature of the light-harvesting apparatus in cyanobacteria.

She worked with a series of mutants that had progressively

small phycobilisomes and used a variety of biophysical

techniques (electron microscopy, hyperspectral confocal

fluorescence microscopy, and small angle neutron scatter-

ing) to determine the impact of changing phycobilisome

composition and structure (Liberton et al. 2013). The

results have led to new perspectives on light harvesting

systems and the photosynthetic membranes, since they

concluded that modulation of phycobilisome antenna size

results in changes in the spacing of the photosynthetic

membranes. In addition, lowering the amount of light

harvesting chlorophyll does not necessarily lead to greater

photosynthetic efficiency and cellular growth.

Eukaryotic microalgae

Debasish Das presented morphological and biochemical

characterization of a novel microalgal isolate which holds

promise for development into a platform for lipid produc-

tion (Das et al. 2012). Muthusivaramapandian Muthuraj

presented metabolic flux analysis for a Chlorella species

under different growth conditions. Innovative approaches

were presented for enhancing the photosynthesis efficien-

cies, growth rates, and development of genetically

engineered strains for heterologous expression in different

microalgae. Gunjan Prakash presented an approach for

tackling aboitic stress arising out of extremely high and

low light intensities through genetic engineering in pho-

tosynthetic pathways. Shashi Kumar shared a range of

optimized techniques and tools for genetically engineering

microalgae for higher lipid and biomass production.

Concluding session

In the concluding session, prizes were given for the best

short talks and best posters (two prizes in each category).

The first and second prizes for short talks went to Celin

Acharya (BARC, Mumbai) and Swathi Alagesan (IIT

Bombay, Mumbai) (Alagesan et al. 2013), respectively.

The first and second prizes for poster were awarded to

Anurag Kirti (BARC, Mumbai) and Basavaraj Palabhanvi

(IIT Guwahati), respectively. The prizes were meant to

encourage young researchers, who indeed made some fine

quality oral and poster presentations. On the final day, a

panel discussion was conducted on ‘‘The Way ahead’’. This

session facilitated productive and useful discussion among

all the participants on various possible joint collaborative

ventures to transform the 5-day long interactions into more

permanent and long-lived associations. The authors of this

summary article are aware of several interactions that

originated during the workshop and have now translated

into lasting collaborations between the participants. The

participants also expressed a desire to participate in future

Workshops and suggested that the Indo-US workshop on

Cyanobacteria be made a biennale event.

Acknowledgments The workshop was sponsored by (i) Indo-US

Science and Technology Forum (IUSSTF), Grant Number 78-2011-

WS; (ii) National Science Foundation, USA; (iii) Department of

Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of

India, Grant Number BT/EB/CYN-Workshop/2012; (iv) Reliance

Industries Ltd., Mumbai, India; and (v) Board of Research in Nuclear

Sciences (BRNS), Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), Govern-

ment of India.

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