The Chlamydomonas CO₂‐concentrating mechanism and its potential for engineering photosynthesis in plants

Abstract

Contents SummaryI.Introduction54II.Recent advances in our understanding of the Chlamydomonas CCM55III.Current gaps in our understanding of the Chlamydomonas CCM58IV.Approaches to rapidly advance our understanding of the Chlamydomonas CCM58V.Engineering a CCM into higher plants58VI.Conclusion and outlook59Acknowledgements60References60 Summary To meet the food demands of a rising global population, innovative strategies are required to increase crop yields. Improvements in plant photosynthesis by genetic engineering show considerable potential towards this goal. One prospective approach is to introduce a CO2‐concentrating mechanism into crop plants to increase carbon fixation by supplying the central carbon‐fixing enzyme, Rubisco, with a higher concentration of its substrate, CO2. A promising donor organism for the molecular machinery of this mechanism is the eukaryotic alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. This review summarizes the recent advances in our understanding of carbon concentration in Chlamydomonas, outlines the most pressing gaps in our knowledge and discusses strategies to transfer a CO2‐concentrating mechanism into higher plants to increase photosynthetic performance.

CO2‐fixing liquid droplets: Towards a dissection of the microalgal pyrenoid

“…A key driver of CCM research concerns translational photosynthesis, and the production of photosynthetically enhanced plants. Details of these ambitions are being extensively discussed elsewhere . Regarding the potential of microalgal CCMs in crop biotechnology, the new insights covered here can be considered from a half‐filled glass perspective.…”

John Mackie Christie

“…The research article by Atkinson et al . () and the related Tansley Insight by Mackinder (), for example, nicely illustrate how our understanding of CO 2 ‐concentrating mechanisms in green algae has the potential to develop new ways to increase photosynthetic performance plants.…”

Engineering of Metabolic Pathways Using Synthetic Enzyme Complexes

“…These structures suggest the possibility of making synthetic organelle-like structures without walls or membranes for metabolic engineering. The introduction of pyrenoids into plant chloroplasts is a potential route for improving photosynthesis (Mackinder, 2018).…”