Cyanobacteria: A Precious Bio-resource in

Agriculture, Ecosystem, and Environmental

Sustainability
Jay Shankar Singh,1,* Arun Kumar,1 Amar N. Rai,2 and Devendra P. Singh3

Published online 2016 Apr 21. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2016.00529

Cyanobacterial biomass is the effective bio-fertilizer source to improve soil physico-chemical

characteristics such as water-holding capacity and mineral nutrient status of the degraded lands. The
unique characteristics of cyanobacteria include their ubiquity presence, short generation time and
capability to fix the atmospheric N2. Similar to other prokaryotic bacteria, the cyanobacteria are
increasingly applied as bio-inoculants for improving soil fertility and environmental quality. Genetically
engineered cyanobacteria have been devised with the novel genes for the production of a number of
bio-fuels such as bio-diesel, bio-hydrogen, bio-methane, synga, and therefore, open new avenues for
the generation of bio-fuels in the economically sustainable manner. This review is an effort to enlist the
valuable information about the qualities of cyanobacteria and their potential role in solving the
agricultural and environmental problems for the future welfare of the planet.

The current agricultural practices are heavily dependent on the application of synthetic fertilizers and
pesticides, intensive tillage, and over irrigation, which have undoubtedly helped many developing
countries to meet the food requirement of their people; nevertheless raised environmental and health
problems, which include deterioration of soil fertility, overuse of land and water resources, polluted
environment, and increased cost of agricultural production.

During the last decades, the microbial processes of green energy production have gained interest as the
sustainable tool for the generation of bio-fuels, namely methane (CH 4), ethanol, H2, butanol, syngas, etc.
Current investigations witnessed noteworthy surge growth in the production of cyanobacterial biomass
for bio-fuels, food supplements (super foods), and bio-fertilizers for safe agriculture (Yamaguchi,
1997; Benson et al., 2014) They have been classified as beneficial as well as harmless bio-agents based
on their role in regulating plant productivity. 

Cynobacteria
Cyanobacteria are the group of photosynthetic organisms which can easily survive on bare minimum
requirement of light, carbon dioxide (CO 2) and water (Woese, 1987; Castenholz, 2001). 

 They fulfill their own nitrogen requirement by nitrogen (N 2)-fixation, and produce some bioactive
compounds, which promote the crop growth/protect them from pathogens and improve the soil
nutrient status. Cyanobacteria are also useful for wastewater treatment, and have the ability to degrade
the various toxic compounds even the pesticides (Cohen, 2006). 

 The cyanobacteria are bestowed with ability to fix atmospheric N 2, decompose the organic wastes and
residues, detoxify heavy metals, pesticides, and other xenobiotics, catalyze the nutrient cycling,
suppress growth of pathogenic microorganisms in soil and water, and also produce some bioactive
compounds such as vitamins, hormones, and enzymes which contribute to plant growth (Higa, 1991).

These bio-agents can improve the soil quality and plant growth, and minimize the crop production cost
by supplementing the good crop management practices such as crop rotation, use of organic manures,
minimum tillage, and the bio-control of pests and diseases. The use of cyanobacteria in agriculture
promises definite beneficial effects on crop productivity, if used properly (Higa and Wididana, 1991).

The application of cyanobacteria in management of soil and environment includes the economic
benefits (reduced input cost), nutrient cycling, N 2-fixation, bioavailability of phosphorus, water storage
and movement, environmental protection and prevention of pollution and land degradation especially
through reducing the use of agro-chemicals, and recycling of nutrients and restoration of soil fertility
through reclamation (Shukia et al., 2008).

The following benefits to the agro-ecosystem are offered through use of cyanobacteria:

 • Enhanced solubilization and mobility of nutrients of limited supply.

 • Complexing of heavy metals and xenobiotics to limit their mobility and transport in
plants.
 • Mineralization of simpler organic molecules such as amino acids for direct uptake.
 • Protection of plants from pathogenic insects and diseases as bio-control agents.
 • Stimulation of the plant growth due to their plant growth promoting attributes.
 • Improving the physico-chemical conditions of soils.

Cyanobacteria as Bio-fertilizers
hick-walled modified cells, which are considered site of nitrogen fixation by nitrogenase enzyme. The
enzyme is a complex, catalyzes the conversion of the molecular N 2 into reduced form like ammonia
(Singh et al., 2011).
 The fixed nitrogen may be released in the form of ammonia, polypeptides, free amino acids, vitamins,
and auxin-like substances; either by secretion or by microbial degradation after the cell death
(Subramanian and Sundaram, 1986). Nitrogen-fixing ability has not only been shown by heterocystous
cyanobacteria but also by several non-heterocystous unicellular and filamentous genera

Cyanobacteria can contribute to about 20–30 kg N ha -1 as well as the organic matter to the soil, quite
significant for the economically weak farmers unable to invest for costly chemical nitrogen fertilizer (Issa
et al., 2014).

There is a little knowledge on commercial byproducts or biofertilizers but several cyanobacterial species
such as Anabaena variabilis, Nostoc muscorum, Aulosira fertissima, and Tolypothrix tenuis found to be
effective biofertilizers.

It has been reported that N availability to plants is increased due to application of cyanobacteria in
agriculture ecosystems, particularly the rice fields (Stewart et al., 1968; Peters et al., 1977; Singh and
Singh, 1987).

It has also been suggested that cyanobacteria can improve the bioavailability of phosphorus to the
plants by solubilizing and mobilizing the insoluble organic phosphates present in the soil with the help of
phosphatase enzymes.

Once an inorganic phosphate is solubilized, the resulting PO 43- is scavenged by the growing population of
cyanobacteria for their own nutrition needs, and after their death, of the cell locked PO 43- released in the
soils, is easily available to plants and other organisms following mineralization (Arora, 1969; Saha and
Mandal, 1979; Mandal et al., 1992, 1999).

 (a)

Cyanobacteria synthesize a chelator for Ca2+ which drives the dissolution to the right
without changing the pH of growth medium (Cameron and Julian, 1988; Roychoudhury
and Kaushik, 1989) as mentioned below-
Ca10(OH)2(PO4)6 → 10Ca2+ + 2OH− + 6PO43−

 (b)

The other assumption is that cyanobacteria release organic acids, which can solubilize
phosphorus through following reaction (Bose et al., 1971) as given below-
Ca3(PO4)2 + 2H2CO3 → 2CaHPO4 + Ca(HCO3)2
Soil use

The currently used traditional agriculture management practices heavily rely on the application of
chemical fertilizers and pesticides, and practices like intensive tillage and excess irrigation which
otherwise lead to ever increasing cost of agricultural production, over exploitation of natural resources
like soil and water, and also create environmental pollution (Kumar et al., 2012).

There is enormous scope for the development of bio-agents including cyanobacteria for sustainable
agriculture which also takes care of the improvement in the nutrient status of soil and biological control
of pest and diseases that may ultimately lead to reductions in the agricultural costs (Singh, 2013b; Singh
and Singh, 2013b).

Cyanobacteria as Plant Growth Promoters

Most of the studies on the plant growth promoting effects of cyanobacteria related to paddy crop
revealed that cyanobacterial inoculation could enhance rice seed germination, root and shoot growth
(Misra and Kaushik, 1989a,b). It is also evident that co-inoculation of cyanobacteria with wheat
enhanced root dry weight and chlorophyll (Obreht et al., 1993). Gantar et al. (1995a,b) observed that
extracellular substances released by cyanobacteria that colonize wheat plant roots showed significant
effect on plant growth, though the agronomic efficiency was not evaluated. Due to their natural
diversity, the capacity of cyanobacteria to grow in a variety of locations, even those unfit for agriculture,
could be exploited. The fast cyanobacterial cell growth and simple nutritional requirements mainly
water, sunlight, and CO2 (Ruffing, 2011) provides a wide scope for the commercial application of
cyanobacterial species as plant growth promoters.

Cyanobacteria: A sustainable and

commercial bio-resource in production of
bio-fertilizer and bio-fuel from waste waters

Environmental and Sustainability Indicators

Volumes 3–4, November–December 2019, 100008
Jay ShankarSinghaArunKumarbManiSinghc
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Micro-algae and cyanobacteria compared to other organisms are eco-friendly,
larger cell size and efficient biomass production, makes them best and
sustainable solution for the problems related to soil fertility and available
water resources.
cyanobacterial bio-fertilizer can act as supplements to fertilizer N contributing
up to 30 kg N ha−1.

Cyanobacteria or blue-green algae are believed to be among the oldest

photosynthetic organisms which existed about 2.6–3.5 billion years ago on
planet earth (Hedges et al., 2001). They can thrive in almost all habitats; from
freshwater to marine, to terrestrial ecosystems; arctic to Antarctica to tropical
deserts (Kulasooriya, 2011; Singh et al., 2016). Cyanobacteria found in
unicellular or filamentous forms; or some times in the form of colonies
(Whitton et al., 2000; Burja et al., 2001).

5. Bio-fertilizer production

They have heterocysts, thick-walled modified cells; which capture the

atmospheric nitrogen (Capone et al., 2005; Kulasooriya, 2011; Singh et al.,
2016) and can be released in the form of polypeptides, free amino acids,
vitamins, and auxin like substances (Subramanian and Sundaram,
1986; Venkataraman, 1972; Singh et al., 2016).
Although it is not necessary to have heterocyst for fixing nitrogen; non-
heterocystous unicellular and filamentous cyanobacteria have also showed the
ability of nitrogen fixation.
n addition, cyanobacteria can add up to 20–30 kg N ha−1 to the agricultural
crops. Karthikeyan et al. (2009) also investigated that cyanobacteria could
enhance the plant shoot/root length, dry weight and yield of wheat crop
 It is also involved in the improvement the soil structure and reclamation of
saline and alkali soils by lowering pH and electrical conductivity, and by
enhancing the hydraulic conductivity  (De Caire et al., 2000; De Cano et al.,
2002; Pandey et al., 2005; Malam Issa et al., 2007; Obana et al., 2007; Al-
Sherif et al., 2015).
can be implied in agricultural crops as slow release bio-fertilizers (Kumar
et al., 2017b). The use of live cyanobacterial cells provides us a simple, low-
cost and efficient slow release bio-fertilizer for improving the productivity of
agricultural crops and reclamation of degraded lands in those regions where
very little or no chemical fertilizers are usually applied.