Grundläggande kunskap om karboxysomers biokemi med syftet att öka produktivitet hos framtida grödor

To ensure that we can feed our growing population farmers need to be equipped with crops that produce higher yields.

Transplanting the cyanobacterial CO2 concentrating mechanism into C3 plants has the potential to increase photosynthetic efficiencies and growth rates with up to 60% in important staple crops, such as cassava and rice.

However, this engineering is today hampered by lack of fundamental knowledge about carboxysomes, the key component in this mechanism.

Carboxysomes are protein based organelles which encapsulates Rubisco and carbonic anhydrase within a protein shell and supercharge cyanobacteria’s CO2-fixation.

Carboxysomes are complex structures built out of more than 10,000 distinct protein pieces that spontaneously self-assemble.

A functional carboxysome requires three main properties: 1) efficient encapsulation of cargo, 2) correct regulation of enzyme activity and 3) accurate permeability of metabolites through the compartment shell.

Using a combination of state-of-the-art biochemistry and cutting edge structural biology we will decipher molecular details of these carboxysome properties.

This will provide an essential knowledge platform empowering synthetic biology approaches aiming at enhancing yields of future crops - for a sustainable food production.

This project is intended to run over four years, involving the applicant as principal investigator and one Postdoc with a background in biochemistry and structural biology.