Engineering of Improving Rubisco Performance

Improving the photosynthetic efficiency of plants contributes to increased crop yields. Lifeasible has successfully developed a variety of reliable and economical solutions for engineering chloroplast photosynthesis. Here, our engineers focused on improving photosynthesis using chloroplast genetic engineering to enhance Rubisco performance.

Introduction

The main determinant of crop biomass is the cumulative photosynthetic rate during the growing season. Studies have shown that increasing photosynthesis in C₃ plants can increase yield. Rubisco (ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase) is an enzyme involved in the fixation of CO₂ or O₂ in photosynthesis, with dual functions of photosynthesis and photorespiration. In addition, Rubisco has evolved L8S8 structures in land plants, including eight 52 kDa large and eight 14-15 kDa small subunits. Due to the wasteful and slow turnover of Rubisco's oxygenase activity, it has been the primary target for operations that increase photosynthesis and increase productivity and resource use efficiency. Scientists have successfully attempted to manipulate the plant Rubisco through nuclear transformation, but chloroplast transformation to specifically engineer the large catalytic Rubisco subunit to improve its performance is more popular.

Fig. 1. Influence of Rubisco bifunctional catalysis on plant productivity. (Sharwood R E, 2017)

Solutions

Attempts to manipulate the plant Rubisco based on nuclear transformation have met with little success. There is increasing interest in improving photosynthesis efficiency by modifying Rubisco in plants to increase catalytic activity or reduce oxygenation rates. Based on the chloroplast transformation technology platform, Lifeasible can provide specialized solutions to enhance the performance of Rubisco. We aimed to enhance CO₂ fixation by Rubisco, successfully integrating Rubisco and Rubisco activase into C₃ crops. To this end, we have successfully met these challenges.

• Altering leaf Rubisco content.
• Modifying Rubisco performance.
• The influence of S-subunits on Rubisco catalysis.
• The need to better understand Rubisco biogenesis.

Our engineers altered Rubisco's catalysis by targeting changes in its chloroplast-encoded L-subunit gene (rbcL) through chloroplast transformation for application in food crops such as maize, wheat, and rice. In addition, we provide other strategies to indirectly improve the performance of Rubisco in plants.

• Improving heat tolerance of Rubisco accessory protein.
• Improving heat tolerance of Rubisco activase.
• Regulating the synthesis and degradation of Rubisco inhibitory sugar phosphate ligands.

Attractive Advantages of Our Solutions

• Increasing leaf photosynthetic rate.
• Crop yields increased several times.
• Improving tolerance to higher growing season temperatures and more frequent extreme heat.
• Improving nitrogen efficiency and water use efficiency.
• CO₂ released from photorespiration via the photorespiration bypass.

Lifeasible's goal is to provide customers around the world with fully customized chloroplast engineered solutions for improving Rubisco performance. Our various strategies will fully meet your needs. Please contact us to discuss further details to ensure your next success.

References

1. Sharwood R E. (2017) Engineering chloroplasts to improve Rubisco catalysis: prospects for translating improvements into food and fiber crops[J]. New Phytologist. 213(2): 494-510.
2. Iñiguez C, Aguiló-Nicolau P, Galmés J. (2021) Improving photosynthesis through the enhancement of Rubisco carboxylation capacity. Biochem Soc Trans. 49(5):2007-2019.