A promiscuous mechanism to phase separate eukaryotic carbon fixation in the green lineage
Open accessPublished version of a preprint
Abstract
CO 2 fixation is commonly limited by inefficiency of the CO 2 -fixing enzyme Rubisco. Eukaryotic algae concentrate and fix CO 2 in phase-separated condensates called pyrenoids, which complete up to one-third of global CO 2 fixation. Condensation of Rubisco in pyrenoids is dependent on interaction with disordered linker proteins that show little conservation between species. We developed a sequence-independent bioinformatic pipeline to identify linker proteins in green algae. We report the linker from Chlorella and demonstrate that it binds a conserved site on the Rubisco large subunit. We show that the Chlorella linker phase separates Chlamydomonas Rubisco and that despite their separation by ~800 million years of evolution, the Chlorella linker can support the formation of a functional pyrenoid in Chlamydomonas . This cross-species reactivity extends to plants, with the Chlorella linker able to drive condensation of some native plant Rubiscos in vitro and in planta. Our results represent an exciting frontier for pyrenoid engineering in plants, which is modelled to increase crop yields.
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Highly accurate protein structure prediction with AlphaFold
Jumper, J., Evans, R., Pritzel, A., Green, T., Figurnov, M., Ronneberger, O., Tunyasuvunakool, K., Bates, R., Žídek, A., Potapenko, A., et al. (2021) · Nature · doi:10.1038/s41586-021-03819-2 · Cited by 43,764 · see citing works
ColabFold - Making protein folding accessible to all
Mirdita, M., Schütze, K., Moriwaki, Y., Heo, L., Ovchinnikov, S., & Steinegger, M. (2021) · doi:10.1101/2021.08.15.456425 · Cited by 9,391 · see citing works
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- Authors
- Barrett, J., Naduthodi, M. I. S., Mao, Y., Dégut, C., Musiał, S., Salter, A., Leake, M. C., Plevin, M. J., McCormick, A. J., Blaza, J. N., & Mackinder, L. C. M.
- Affiliations
- University of York (GB)
- University of Edinburgh (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Mackinder, Luke C. M.
- ORCID
- Venue
- Nature Plants
- Published
- 2024-10-09
- Volume
- 10
- Issue
- 11
- Pages
- 1801-1813
- ISSN
- 2055-026X (ISSN-L)
- 2055-0278
- PMC
- PMC11570498
- OpenAlex
- W4403253348
- Cited by
- 37
- References
- 2
- Citations by year
- 2026: 20 · 2025: 11 · 2024: 6
- FWCI
- 5.02
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Locations
- Nature Plants (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) (acceptedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- White Rose Research Online (University of Leeds, The University of Sheffield, University of York) (submittedVersion)
- Edinburgh Research Explorer (University of Edinburgh) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Funders
- National Science Foundation
- Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (INV-054558)
- Wellcome Trust (206161, Z/17/Z, 206161/Z/17/Z)
- UK Research and Innovation (MR/T040742/1)
- Research Councils UK (MR/T040742/1, EP/W024063/1)
- Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (019.221EN.010)
- Darwin Trust of Edinburgh
- Directorate for Biological Sciences
- Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/W024063/1)
- Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BB/S015337/1, BB/M0111511a, BB/S015337/11, BB/Y000323/1, BB/T007222/1)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Photosynthetic Processes and Mechanisms
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Plant biochemistry and biosynthesis
- Physical Sciences › Energy › Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment › Algal biology and biofuel production
- Keywords
- pyrenoid, Rubisco, phase separation, linker proteins, CO2 fixation, Chlorella, Chlamydomonas, green algae, Rubisco large subunit, protein condensates, crop yield, CO2-concentrating mechanism
- MeSH terms
- Carbon Dioxide, Chlamydomonas, Chlorella, Ribulose-Bisphosphate Carboxylase, Carbon Cycle
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