Engineering of Increasing CO₂ Concentration Around Rubisco

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 using chloroplast genetic engineering to increase the CO₂ concentration in the chloroplast and thereby minimize photorespiration.

Introduction

Atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations are currently higher than ever, and elevated levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere have been shown to reduce the rate of photorespiration. Photosynthesis in C3 plants is limited by a substantial drop in CO₂ concentration from the atmosphere to Rubisco catalytic sites in the chloroplast. Studies have shown that high concentrations of CO₂ inhibit the assimilation of nitrate in wheat and Arabidopsis plants. This has inspired people to study the impact of elevated carbon dioxide levels on the nutritional quality of crops. Under conditions of elevated carbon dioxide concentrations, most plants exhibit higher photosynthetic rates, reduce water use, and reduce nitrogen and protein concentrations in tissues, thereby accelerating plant growth.

Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of mechanisms for concentrating CO₂ around Rubisco. (Yamori W, 2021)

Solutions

In terms of increasing the photosynthetic rate of crops, increasing the CO₂ concentration in the chloroplast and thereby minimizing photorespiration is a promising strategy. Based on the chloroplast transformation technology platform, Lifeasible can provide specialized solutions to increase the CO₂ concentration around Rubisco. Our goal is to alleviate the inhibition of plant growth and physiological functions by abiotic stress by increasing CO₂ concentration. Here, we provide multiple strategies to increase CO₂ concentration in plant chloroplasts.

• Potentially improve CO₂ diffusion by engineering plants so that they have smaller mesophyll cells.
• Increasing CO₂ concentration in C₃ plant chloroplasts by increasing membrane permeability to CO₂.
• Improving the amount of carbonic anhydrase in plants by molecular engineering.
• Providing a new pathway for CO₂ entry into the chloroplast by incorporating HCO_3^- transporters from cyanobacteria into the chloroplast envelope of C₃ plants.
• Integrating features of complex C₄ pathways into C₃ crops such as rice achieves higher yields and improved nitrogen and water use efficiencies.

Attractive Advantages of Our Solutions

• Various strategies are available.
• Increasing CO₂ concentration at the Rubisco site is achieved by a biochemical CO₂ pump and relies on spatial separation of CO₂ fixation and assimilation.
• Helping understand how C₄ plants respond to environmental variables such as temperature, CO₂, nutrients and water.
• Multiple biological tool support, including whole genomes of genetically engineered plant species, multiple databases, bioinformatics tools, next-generation sequencing, etc.

Lifeasible's goal is to provide customers around the world with fully customized chloroplast engineered solutions for increasing CO₂ concentration around rubisco. Our various strategies will fully meet your needs. Please contact us to discuss further details to ensure your next success.

References

1. Lara M V, Andreo C S. (2011) C₄ plants adaptation to high levels of CO₂ and to drought environments[J]. Abiotic stress in plants-mechanisms and adaptations. 415-428.
2. Yamori W. (2021) Strategies for engineering photosynthesis for enhanced plant biomass production[J]. Rice Improvement. 31.