Programmable microalgae: Engineering sense-decide-adapt systems for dynamic environmental performance.

Programmable microalgae with engineered sense-decide-adapt systems can expand environmental performance, maintaining productivity under fluctuating conditions, as demonstrated by the EPE framework.

• Why it matters: Understanding and improving how microalgae respond to dynamic environments is crucial for industrial applications, where variable conditions often limit productivity and stability.
• What they did: The study introduces the Environmental Performance Envelope (EPE), a framework that assesses how engineering response kinetics and stability influence the operational space of microalgae under realistic environmental trajectories, using genome editing and biosensors.
• The result: Results suggest that engineering response dynamics can expand the environmental operating space, enabling more robust biomanufacturing, with implications for other microbial and plant systems facing environmental variability.