**The World of Cyanobacteria**

**Chapter 1**

**Provisional chapter**

**Cyanobacteria: The Wonderful Factories**

**Cyanobacteria: The Wonderful Factories**

DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.79751

Cyanobacteria are photosynthetic algae with outstanding endeavor to inhabit diverse habitats and are crowned with special metabolic acumen. Their morphological diversity is vivid and their ecological roles are magnificent and vital in nature ranging from nitrogen cycle to carbon dioxide mitigation. Their applications are now extensively explored and many novel compounds have been reported. The pigments, vitamins, lipids, proteins, polyketides, antioxidative enzymes, polysaccharides etc. derived from cyanobacteria are envisaged worldwide. Their diligent acumen makes them ideal tiny microbial factories for nutraceuticals, biofuels, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, wastewater remediation and many more. Further investigations can aid in elucidating more cyanobacterial secondary metabolites and innovative approaches towards their wider applicability in plethora of

**Keywords:** cyanobacteria, novel compounds, nutraceuticals, secondary metabolites,

Cyanobacteria are a distinctive class of extraordinary prokaryotes with photosynthetic capability loaded with immense potentials and diverse applications. Traditionally they were called '**blue-greens'**, as the first cyanobacteria reported were bluish-green in color. The fossils of cyanobacteria are 3.8 billion years old, among the oldest fossils currently known. They are pioneers of the major transformation that occurred in the due course of evolution contributing towards the aerobic metabolism as the photosynthetic machinery of angiosperms and photosynthetic eukaryotes are presumed to be developed from primitive cyanobacterium billions of years ago. Initially, Cyanobacteria was placed in the class of algae owing to their

> © 2016 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

© 2018 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use,

distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.79751

avenues as sustainable reservoirs.

**1. The extraordinary photosynthetic microbes**

wastewater remediation

Archana Tiwari

Archana Tiwari

**Abstract**

#### **Cyanobacteria: The Wonderful Factories Cyanobacteria: The Wonderful Factories**

#### Archana Tiwari Archana Tiwari

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.79751

**Abstract**

Cyanobacteria are photosynthetic algae with outstanding endeavor to inhabit diverse habitats and are crowned with special metabolic acumen. Their morphological diversity is vivid and their ecological roles are magnificent and vital in nature ranging from nitrogen cycle to carbon dioxide mitigation. Their applications are now extensively explored and many novel compounds have been reported. The pigments, vitamins, lipids, proteins, polyketides, antioxidative enzymes, polysaccharides etc. derived from cyanobacteria are envisaged worldwide. Their diligent acumen makes them ideal tiny microbial factories for nutraceuticals, biofuels, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, wastewater remediation and many more. Further investigations can aid in elucidating more cyanobacterial secondary metabolites and innovative approaches towards their wider applicability in plethora of avenues as sustainable reservoirs.

DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.79751

**Keywords:** cyanobacteria, novel compounds, nutraceuticals, secondary metabolites, wastewater remediation
