A Clickable Photosystem I, Ferredoxin, and Ferredoxin NADP⁺ Reductase Fusion System for Light‐Driven NADPH Regeneration**

Abstract

Photosynthetic organisms like plants, algae, and cyanobacteria use light for the regeneration of dihydronicotinamide dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH). The process starts with the light‐driven oxidation of water by photosystem II (PSII) and the released electrons are transferred via the cytochrome b6f complex towards photosystem I (PSI). This membrane protein complex is responsible for the light‐driven reduction of the soluble electron mediator ferredoxin (Fd), which passes the electrons to ferredoxin NADP+ reductase (FNR). Finally, NADPH is regenerated by FNR at the end of the electron transfer chain. In this study, we established a clickable fusion system for in vitro NADPH regeneration with PSI−Fd and PSI−Fd−FNR, respectively. For this, we fused immunity protein 7 (Im7) to the C‐terminus of the PSI−PsaE subunit in the cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803. Furthermore, colicin DNase E7 (E7) fusion chimeras of Fd and FNR with varying linker domains were expressed in Escherichia coli. Isolated Im7−PSI was coupled with the E7−Fd or E7−Fd−FNR fusion proteins through high‐affinity binding of the E7/Im7 protein pair. The corresponding complexes were tested for NADPH regeneration capacity in comparison to the free protein systems demonstrating the general applicability of the strategy.

Strong heterologous electron sink outcompetes alternative electron transport pathways in photosynthesis

“…Attaching native and heterologous enzymes to PSI or Fd has been shown to be successful with Cyt P450s (Lassen et al, 2014; Mellor et al, 2016) and hydrogenase (Appel et al, 2020). However, in these applications, Fd red is the electron donor rather than NAD(P)H. A fusion of PSI, Fd and FNR enhanced the electron transport rate (Medipally et al, 2023), demonstrating that the localisation of heterologous enzymes is a promising target for optimisation. Another potential target is the NADPH/NADP + pool.…”