A carboxysome‐based CO₂ concentrating mechanism for C₃ crop chloroplasts: advances and the road ahead

Abstract

SUMMARYThe introduction of the carboxysome‐based CO2 concentrating mechanism (CCM) into crop plants has been modelled to significantly increase crop yields. This projection serves as motivation for pursuing this strategy to contribute to global food security. The successful implementation of this engineering challenge is reliant upon the transfer of a microcompartment that encapsulates cyanobacterial Rubisco, known as the carboxysome, alongside active bicarbonate transporters. To date, significant progress has been achieved with respect to understanding various aspects of the cyanobacterial CCM, and more recently, different components of the carboxysome have been successfully introduced into plant chloroplasts. In this Perspective piece, we summarise recent findings and offer new research avenues that will accelerate research in this field to ultimately and successfully introduce the carboxysome into crop plants for increased crop yields.

CyanoTag: Discovery of protein function facilitated by high-throughput endogenous tagging in a photosynthetic prokaryote

“…Many photosynthetic genes and central metabolic processes remain conserved between cyanobacteria and eukaryotic chloroplasts. Thus, understanding cyanobacterial cell biology can contribute to advances in knowledge of fundamental cellular processes, chloroplast biology and endeavours in photosynthetic engineering of plants 5,6 . In addition, their diversity, genetic tractability and photosynthetic capability position cyanobacteria as promising chassis for green biotechnology applications, including carbon capture and high-value product manufacture 7 .…”