The need to reduce the CO₂ footprint of human activities calls for the utilization of new means of production and new sources of products. Microalgae are a very promising source of a large variety of products, from fuels to chemicals for multiple industrial applications (e.g., dyes, pharmaceutical products, cosmetics, food and feed, new materials for high tech manufacture), and for processes such as wastewater treatment. Algae, as photosynthetic organisms, use light to energize the synthesis of organic matter and differently from most terrestrial plants, can be cultured on land that is not used for crop production. We describe the main factors contributing to microalgae productivity in artificial cultivation systems and discuss the research areas that still need investigation in order to pave the way to the generation of photosynthetic cell factories. We shall comment on the main caveats of the possible mode of improving photosynthetic efficiency and to optimize the partitioning of fixed C to products of commercial relevance. We address the problem of the selection of the appropriate strain and of the consequences of their diverse physiology and culture conditions for a successful commercial application. Finally, we shall provide state of the art information on cell factories chassis by means of synthetic biology approaches to produce chemicals of interest.

减少CO ₂的需要人类活动的足迹要求利用新的生产资料和新的产品来源。微藻是多种产品的非常有希望的来源，从燃料到多种工业应用的化学品（例如染料，药品，化妆品，食品和饲料，高科技制造的新材料）以及废水处理等过程。藻类作为光合作用生物，利用光来激发有机物质的合成，与大多数陆生植物不同，藻类可以在不用于农作物生产的土地上进行养殖。我们描述了在人工栽培系统中影响微藻生产力的主要因素，并讨论了仍需进行研究以为光合细胞工厂的产生铺平道路的研究领域。我们将评论提高光合作用效率和优化固定碳与商业相关产品分配的可能模式的主要警告。我们解决了选择合适的菌株及其成功的商业应用的各种生理和培养条件所带来的后果的问题。最后，我们将通过合成生物学方法提供有关细胞工厂底盘的最新信息，以生产感兴趣的化学物质。