Combining Algal and Plant Photosynthesis (CAPP2): Application to Extend the NSF/BBSRC PSIL Collaboration

许多作物的生产力受到CO2可用性和用水量的限制。CAPP项目旨在通过将性能增强的碳浓缩机制（CCM）从绿色藻类转移到高等植物来克服这些限制。该项目将在我们对CCM功能的理解方面取得重大进展，尽管几乎所有藻类都使用它们来吸收CO2，但CCM仍然是神秘的。如果成功，该项目将是大幅提高作物产量的关键一步。更一般地说，该项目代表了将复杂系统从一种生物体移植到另一种生物体的第一次尝试之一，因此将提供许多学习一般原理的机会，这些原理将随着人类越来越多地尝试工程生物学而变得有用。CAPP 2将专注于了解蛋白核，藻类CCM核心的细胞器，并在C3植物拟南芥中重建其关键特征。蛋白核的结构，装配和调节将在绿色衣原体中进行研究，使用突变体，光学和电子显微镜，和生物化学。组件将被引入拟南芥，对生产力的影响将被建模和测量。此外，Förster共振能量转移（FRET）纳米传感器将被开发用于测量体内亚细胞分辨率的碳酸氢盐浓度;该传感器将被应用于表征衣原体和拟南芥中的CCM。

Productivity in many crops is limited by CO2 availability and water use. The CAPP project aims to overcome those limitations by transferring a performance-enhancing Carbon Concentrating Mechanism (CCM) from green algae to higher plants. This project will yield significant advances in our understanding in the function of CCMs, which remain mysterious even though nearly all algae use them to assimilate CO2. If successful, the project will be a key step towards significant increases in crop productivity. More generally, this project represents one of the first attempts at transplanting a complex system from one organism to another, and thus will present many opportunities for learning general principles that will be useful as mankind increasingly attempts to engineer biology.CAPP2 will focus on understanding the pyrenoid, an organelle at the core of the algal CCM, and re-creating its key features in the C3 plant Arabidopsis. Structure, assembly and regulation of the pyrenoid will be studied in the green alga Chlamydomonas, using mutants, light and electron microscopy, and biochemistry. Components will be introduced into Arabidopsis, and the impact on productivity will be modeled and measured. Additionally, a Förster Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET) nanosensor will be developed to measure concentrations of bicarbonate with sub-cellular resolution in vivo; the sensor will be applied to characterize the CCM in both Chlamydomonas and Arabidopsis.