Exploring the evolutionary protein landscape of red Rubisco towards improving plant photosynthesis.

Abstract

Ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (Rubisco) conducts the carbon entry into the biosphere by fixing the CO2 into organic carbon. Rubisco is the most abundant enzyme on the Earth because it prevalently exists in plants, cyanobacteria, algae, bacteria and Archaea. Rubisco has the major defaults in its structure and then results in its slow and error-prone catalytic properties, but some red Rubisco have been characterised are more efficient. Using directed evolution approaches in the foreign host has been successfully improved the catalytic properties and functional assembly of some green Rubisco. The goals of this thesis were, firstly to assess the established RDE systems that could be used to evolve red type Rubisco that can functionally assemble in RDE and chloroplast; Secondly, to investigate the advantages of continuous evolution in RDE; and last, to test if the growth advantage could be brought by transplanting artificial evolved red Rubisco into plants. Show more