Carboxysome encapsulation of the CO₂-fixing enzyme Rubisco in tobacco chloroplasts.

Abstract

A long-term strategy to enhance global crop photosynthesis and yield involves the introduction of cyanobacterial CO₂-concentrating mechanisms (CCMs) into plant chloroplasts. Cyanobacterial CCMs enable relatively rapid CO₂ fixation by elevating intracellular inorganic carbon as bicarbonate, then concentrating it as CO₂ around the enzyme Rubisco in specialized protein micro-compartments called carboxysomes. To date, chloroplastic expression of carboxysomes has been elusive, requiring coordinated expression of almost a dozen proteins. Here we successfully produce simplified carboxysomes, isometric with those of the source organism Cyanobium, within tobacco chloroplasts. We replace the endogenous Rubisco large subunit gene with cyanobacterial Form-1A Rubisco large and small subunit genes, along with genes for two key α-carboxysome structural proteins. This minimal gene set produces carboxysomes, which encapsulate the introduced Rubisco and enable autotrophic growth at elevated CO₂. This result demonstrates the formation of α-carboxysomes from a reduced gene set, informing the step-wise construction of fully functional α-carboxysomes in chloroplasts.