Cyanobacteria are promising green cell factories to produce valuable compounds by directly fixing CO₂. The photosynthetic organisms acclimate and adapt to changing light condition by controlling the energy transfer between both photosystems and the pigments composition for keeping a suitable balance of excitation between photosystem I (PSI) and photosystem II (PSII). We try to understand the adaptive function of photosystems of cyanobacteria against various types of light conditions based on systems biology techniques such as genome scale metabolic modeling and ¹³C-metabolic flux analysis. Evolution engineering to screen high light tolerant strains is also performed to elucidate mechanism of high light stress tolerance.

This review describes our recent studies about “fluid-fluid interfacial energy driven 3D structure emergence in a micropillar scaffold (FLUID3EAMS)” and its application. The FLUID3EAMS generates a 3D droplet (or hydrogel bead) array in a micropillar scaffold by a simple phenomenon that a fluid-fluid interface passes through the scaffold. The method to realize the phenomenon will be a powerful tool for application requiring ordered or arrayed microdroplets in biophysics, biology, or tissue engineering.