Functional Reconstitution of a Bacterial CO Concentrating Mechanism in

Overview

Journal Elife

Specialty Biology

Date 2020 Oct 21

PMID 33084575

Citations 42

Authors

Avi I Flamholz

Eli Dugan

Cecilia Blikstad

Shmuel Gleizer

Roee Ben-Nissan

Shira Amram

Niv Antonovsky

Sumedha Ravishankar

Elad Noor

Arren Bar-Even

Ron Milo

David F Savage

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Many photosynthetic organisms employ a CO concentrating mechanism (CCM) to increase the rate of CO fixation via the Calvin cycle. CCMs catalyze ≈50% of global photosynthesis, yet it remains unclear which genes and proteins are required to produce this complex adaptation. We describe the construction of a functional CCM in a non-native host, achieved by expressing genes from an autotrophic bacterium in an strain engineered to depend on rubisco carboxylation for growth. Expression of 20 CCM genes enabled to grow by fixing CO from ambient air into biomass, with growth in ambient air depending on the components of the CCM. Bacterial CCMs are therefore genetically compact and readily transplanted, rationalizing their presence in diverse bacteria. Reconstitution enabled genetic experiments refining our understanding of the CCM, thereby laying the groundwork for deeper study and engineering of the cell biology supporting CO assimilation in diverse organisms.

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