Modelling the pyrenoid-based CO₂-concentrating mechanism provides insights into its operating principles and a roadmap for its engineering into crops.

ABSTRACT: Many eukaryotic photosynthetic organisms enhance their carbon uptake by supplying concentrated CO₂ to the CO₂-fixing enzyme Rubisco in an organelle called the pyrenoid. Ongoing efforts seek to engineer this pyrenoid-based CO₂-concentrating mechanism (PCCM) into crops to increase yields. Here we develop a computational model for a PCCM on the basis of the postulated mechanism in the green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. Our model recapitulates all Chlamydomonas PCCM-deficient mutant phenotypes and yields general biophysical principles underlying the PCCM. We show that an effective and energetically efficient PCCM requires a physical barrier to reduce pyrenoid CO₂ leakage, as well as proper enzyme localization to reduce futile cycling between CO

SUBMITTER: Fei C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9122830 | biostudies-literature | 2022 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature