Increasing population and urbanization bring along depletion of water resources with notable discharge of industrial and municipal wastewater which is rich in nutrients. Microalgae hold great promise for assimilating the nutrient compounds, particularly the intricate nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) compounds from wastewater, resulting in algal biomass enriched with various valuable biomolecules. However, development of strategies involving the cultivation of microalgae for wastewater treatment and production of commodity components is still in its infancy. In this review, the current status of microalgae-mediated wastewater treatment, the existing technological bottlenecks that hamper the effective use of photosynthetic microalgae, and innovative solutions to obviate the shortcomings are discussed. Also, this article highlights the potential use of genetic engineering technologies in overproducing algal biomolecules without impeding cellular biomass accumulation by regulating critical metabolic targets for the development of engineered algal strains. In this context, adaptive laboratory evolution (ALE) could be the promising tool to further empower the engineered strains to mitigate the adverse effect from the wastewater cultivation medium. In summary, this review provides novel insights into the application of genetic engineering strategies for overproducing algal biomass and valuable biomolecules such as lipids and polyunsaturated fatty acids using wastewater in a cost-effective manner.

人口的增加和城市化带来了水资源的枯竭，同时还排放了富含营养物的工业和市政废水。微藻具有从废水中吸收营养化合物，特别是复杂的氮（N）和磷（P）化合物的广阔前景，从而使藻类生物质富含各种有价值的生物分子。但是，涉及用于废水处理和商品成分生产的微藻栽培策略的开发仍处于起步阶段。在这篇综述中，讨论了微藻介导的废水处理的现状，阻碍光合微藻有效利用的现有技术瓶颈，以及消除这种缺点的创新解决方案。也，本文着重介绍了基因工程技术在过量生产藻类生物分子中的潜在用途，而不会通过调节关键的代谢靶标来抑制工程藻类菌株的开发而阻止细胞生物量的积累。在这种情况下，自适应实验室进化（ALE）可能是有前途的工具，可以进一步赋予工程菌株以减轻废水培养培养基的不利影响的能力。总而言之，本综述提供了有关基因工程策略应用的新颖见解，这些策略可利用废水以经济有效的方式过量生产藻类生物质和有价值的生物分子，例如脂质和多不饱和脂肪酸。