Cyanobacteria are important in the nitrogen cycle. Cyanobacteria are very important organisms for the health and growth of many plants. They are one of very few groups of organisms that can convert inert atmospheric nitrogen into an organic form, such as nitrate or ammonia.

1. Economic Importance of
Cyanobacteria
Presented By : Fatima Tahir (16604)
BS (HONS) Biotechnology (Evening)

2. Contents:
• Introduction
• Structure of Cyanobacteria
• Major Differences Between Bacteria and
Cyanobacteria
• Economic Importance of Cyanobacteria
• Recent Researches In cyanobacteria
• Health Benefits
• Characteristics of Cyanobacteria
• Conclusion

3. Introduction
• Cyanobacteria are aquatic and photosynthetic, that is, they live
in the water, and they can manufacture their own food.
• They are bacteria, and mostly unicellular, usually small in size
and they often grow in colonies.
• They have the distinction of being the oldest known fossils,
more than 3.5 billion years old, in fact! It may surprise you
then to know that the cyanobacteria are still around; they are
one of the largest and most important groups of bacteria on
earth.

4. Introduction
• They exist in individual form, free floating or also in the form of
complex structure.
• Cyanobacteria were the first lifeform on planet that absorb
sunlight or water to produce energy and oxygen with the help of
photosynthesis.
• Cyanobacteria is a single celled microbe, they mostly form their
energy from the sunlight and can be present almost in every
environment on the planet.

5. Structure of cyanobacteria
• Cyanobacterial cells are larger in size.
• Structure of cell is typically prokaryotic.
• Naked DNA
• 70 s ribosomes
• Absence of the membrane bounded
organelles such as endoplasmic reticulum,
Golgi bodies, lysosomes, mitochondria.
• The cell wall has four layers with
peptidoglycan that is situated in the second
layer.

6. Structure of cyanobacteria
• The outer part of the protoplast consist of many photosynthetic
thylakoids. These thylakoids freely floating in the cytoplasm.
• The membranes contain chlorophyll.
• Small granules that are attached to the thylakoid membrane are
known as phycobilisomes. That contain the photosynthetic pigment
which is called phycobilin.
• Gas vacuoles are found, that contains number of submicroscopic
units called gas vesicles.
• Naked DNA are present in the central part of the cytoplasm.

7. Economic importance of cyanobacteria
• Cyanobacteria can be cultured in a specific media.
• Cyanobacteria proves very helpful in the field of agriculture because
they have the ability to fix the nitrogen of the atmosphere or in the
soil, as well as give other benefits in the field of agriculture.
• On the other hand they play important role in the environment and
proves very helpful for the environment as well.
• They help in the redemption of alkaline soil.
• Usually found heterocyst in the cyanobacteria, that help to fix the
atmospheric nitrogen that is unavailable to most of the living
organisms.

8. Economic importance of cyanobacteria
• During photosynthesis, they release oxygen in the environment as a by-
product.
• Various species of cyanobacteria including Oscillatoria used as a
pollution indicators. However too many nutrients like nitrogen and
phosphorus in the waterway result in the condition that leads to the
formation of cyanobacterial blooms. These blooms are generally floating
on the water, and used as biological indicator of organic pollution.
• It is also used as food. For example spirulina are used due to their
nutritive value. Spirulina is used as tablet and sold all over the world as
health food.

9. Economic importance of cyanobacteria
• Cyanobacteria is also used as model organism in the field of
biotechnology. The unicellular cyanobacterium synechocystis
sp. PCC 6803 was the third prokaryote and first
photosynthetic organism whose genome was completely
sequenced.
• Super Blue-green algae form expensive scum. These are
single-celled cyanobacteria. They produce their food through
photosynthesis. These blue-green algae are a complete whole
food. It contains 60% protein. This protein has all essential
amino acids in perfect balance.

10. Economic importance of cyanobacteria
• Cyanobacteria are also used to produce the cyanobacterial biofertilizers.
Those cyanobacterial based fertilizers have various advantages like the
supply of nutrients is more balanced due to the microbial activities,
restore the soil fertility, buffering the soil against acidity, and improve
the nutrient status inside the soil.
• Cyanobacteria may posses the ability to produce the substances that
could one day be serve as an anti-inflammatory agents and also helpful
in bacterial infections for the humans.

11. Recent researches on cyanobacteria
• Current research in this field is
to produce the algae-based fuels
such as diesel, gasoline, ethanol
etc. Bioenergy is much safer,
cleaner and economical source of
energy. Cyanobacteria are the
most essential source of energy
or biofuels just because of their
photosynthetic ability and also
the lack of dependency on the
fertile soil.

12. Recent researches on cyanobacteria
• Researchers from the
company named
Algenol, genetically
cultured the
cyanobacteria in the
sea water inside a
plastic enclosure, so
firstly they make
sugar (pyruvate) from
carbon dioxide.

13. Health Benefits
• Cyanobacteria have been identified as a rich
source of biologically active compounds with
antiviral, antibacterial, antifungal and
anticancer activities.
• Use of cyanobacteria in field of medicine and
health leads to the development of various new
drugs that proves helpful to treat diseases.

14. Health Benefits
• Cyanobacteria is also an emerging and important
source of novel bioactive secondary metabolites.
Like CYANOVIN is a secondary metabolite that
shown to possess anti-HIV activity. Cyanobacterial
secondary metabolites may constitute a prolific
source of new entities leading to the development of
new pharmaceuticals.

15. Characteristics of cyanobacteria
• Cyanobacteria are prokaryotes. They don’t have a nucleus and nuclear
membrane.
• They range in diameter from 1 to 10µm.
• They form colonies, they are unicellular and they form colonies in
different shapes.
• They don’t have flagella. In order to move they use gas vesicles in
water
• The photosynthetic system of cyanobacteria resembles to eukaryotes.
They release oxygen during photosynthesis. They use pigments and
these pigments are present in the thylakoid membrane. Cyanobacteria
also fix carbon dioxide through the Calvin cycle.

16. Characteristics of cyanobacteria
• They reserve food in the form of
glycogen.
• They reproduce asexually via
binary fission, or fragmentation.
• Cyanobacteria are autotrophs, they
make their own food.

17. Limitations
• Cyanobacteria also have some limitations like they produce
several type of toxins which is harmful for the animals and
humans.
• Cyanobacterial blooms cause hazardous effects on aquatic
ecosystems, and also causes taste and odor problems in
drinking water supplies.

18. Conclusion
• Cyanobacteria are the most successful and very
productive group of microorganism on earth.
• Due to their ability to release the oxygen during
photosynthesis, makes it a source of oxygen on earth.
• Cyanobacteria were the first lifeform on planet that
absorb sunlight or water to produce energy and oxygen
with the help of photosynthesis.