Engineering microbes for sustainable biofuel production and extraction of lipids – Current research and future perspectives

•Genetic modification of microbe for enhanced lipid production was studied in detail.•Extraction methods of lipid from genetic modified microbe was studied in depth.•State of the art of metabolic pathway for genetic modification of microbial pathway for lipid biosynthesis was mentioned. Genetic engineering is also known as the modification of genes or manipulation of genes which involves a process to modify the DNA molecule from a specific organism which results in enhancing specific properties. The process of modification can be done either by insertion or removal of specific DNA segments or base pairs. Thus, the newly produced nucleic acid can be loaded or injected arbitrarily or to the specific target site of the genome. Artificially the species were genetically modified to produce a high yield. The energy demand is always increasing and there is always a need for alternate fuels. Researchers are recently focusing on the microbes for the production of various types of biofuels such as bioethanol, biobutanol and biodiesel. Especially genetically modified microbes possess the huge capability to enhance biofuel production.