Photosynthesizing cyanobacteria inside confined space at microscale

Abstract

Biofuel is one of promising fuels to solve the depletion of the fossil fuels and the environmental problems. We have proposed a hypothesis that cyanobacteria release biofuel from themselves, when their growths and divisions are suppressed while they keep photosynthesizing. In order to validate this hypothesis, we designed and fabricated a micro-pillar array. Inside the confined spaces of the micro-pillar array, the cyanobacteria do not grow and divide.