Crops & Soil - Regulation of Rubisco in a synthetic pyrenoid-like condensate expressed in rice

农作物

• 批准号: 2672572
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of Edinburgh
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2021 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2672572
• 关键词: Crops; Soil; Regulation; Rubisco; synthetic

Ribulose 1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (Rubisco) is the driving force behind CO2 assimilation in plants. Despite its importance, Rubisco is a slow and error-prone enzyme, and thus a key limiting factor for growth. This limitation is particularly evident in staple C3 crops, such as rice. To compensate, some organisms have evolved CO2-concentrating mechanisms (CCMs) that increases the efficiency of Rubisco. In algae, Rubisco is condensed within a liquid-like, phase separated microcompartment called the pyrenoid, in association with a CCM that enhance photosynthetic efficiencies. Introducing an algal CCM into a C3 crop could improve the performance of Rubisco and significantly increase yields and the efficiency of food production. Three recent developments have opened up exciting new avenues to engineer Rubisco and build an algal CCM into a crop plant: i) pyrenoid-like condensates can now be generated in plants by modification of the small subunit of Rubisco (SSU) and introduction of algal components1, ii) CRISPR/Cas approaches are able to replace the SSU family in crop plants (e.g. in rice2), iii) plant Rubiscos can be assembled in vitro (i.e. in E. coli3). This project will aim to assemble a pyrenoid in rice and characterise the performance and regulation of Rubisco within the liquid-like condensate.

核酮糖1，5-二磷酸羧基酶/加氧酶(Rubisco)是植物吸收二氧化碳的原动力。尽管Rubisco很重要，但它是一种速度慢、容易出错的酶，因此是生长的关键限制因素。这一限制在水稻等主要C3作物中尤为明显。为了弥补这一点，一些生物进化出了二氧化碳浓缩机制(CCM)，从而提高了Rubisco的效率。在藻类中，Rubisco凝聚在一个液体状的、相分离的微室中，称为类蛋白核，与增强光合作用效率的CCM结合在一起。在C3作物中引入藻类CCM可以改善Rubisco的性能，显著提高产量和粮食生产效率。最近的三个进展为工程Rubisco和将藻类CCM构建成农作物开辟了令人兴奋的新途径：i)现在可以通过修饰Rubisco小亚基(SSU)和引入藻类成分在植物中产生类蛋白核缩合物1，ii)CRISPR/CAS方法能够在作物中取代SSU家族(例如在水稻2中)，iii)植物RuBiscos可以在体外组装(即在E.coli3中)。该项目的目标是在大米中组装一种蛋白核，并表征Rubisco在液体状冷凝液中的性能和调节。