Chlamydomonas reinhardtii as host in production of recombinant proteins for medical uses

Microalga as a new preferred bioreactor system have many advantages compared with other bioreactor system as it is edible and does not contain endotoxins for human consumption. The green microalga species Chlamydomonas reinhardtii possesses many beneficial properties that have made it as model organism in photosynthetic related studies, biofuel production and also as eukaryotic host in heterologous proteins production. Recombinant proteins expressed in C. reinhardtii have been produced for the medical applications as hormones, vaccines, and antibodies. Production of these therapeutic proteins in microalgae has enhanced the yield of the proteins expressed compared to the traditional cell tissue culture methods which normally are more expensive in the cost of production. In this review, the recombinant microalgae developed by genetic transformation of both nuclear and chloroplast genomes are discussed, recombinant proteins that had been produced for medical purposes in C. reinhardtii are presented and the transformation methods as well as strategies for better protein expression in C. reinhardtii are also discussed