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Opposing effects of folding and assembly chaperones on evolvability of Rubisco

Nature Chemical Biology volume 11, pages 148–155 (2015)Cite this article

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Abstract

Ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (Rubisco) catalyzes the fixation of CO2 in photosynthesis. Despite its pivotal role, Rubisco is an inefficient enzyme and thus is a key target for directed evolution. Rubisco biogenesis depends on auxiliary factors, including the GroEL/ES-type chaperonin for folding and the chaperone RbcX for assembly. Here we performed directed evolution of cyanobacterial form I Rubisco using a Rubisco-dependent Escherichia coli strain. Overexpression of GroEL/ES enhanced Rubisco solubility and tended to expand the range of permissible mutations. In contrast, the specific assembly chaperone RbcX had a negative effect on evolvability by preventing a subset of mutants from forming holoenzyme. Mutation F140I in the large Rubisco subunit, isolated in the absence of RbcX, increased carboxylation efficiency approximately threefold without reducing CO2 specificity. The F140I mutant resulted in a ∼55% improved photosynthesis rate in Synechocystis PCC6803. The requirement of specific biogenesis factors downstream of chaperonin may have retarded the natural evolution of Rubisco.

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Figure 1: Chaperone effects on functional expression of Rubisco mutants.
Figure 2: Chaperone effects on mutational tolerance of Rubisco.
Figure 3: Location of mutations in the large subunit of Rubisco.
Figure 4: Rubisco mutants with increased fitness.
Figure 5: RbcL mutation F140I supports cyanobacterial growth with less Rubisco.
Figure 6: Effects of chaperones on Rubisco evolvability.

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Acknowledgements

We thank S. Whitney (Australian National University, Canberra) for the MM1 strain and plasmids pACBADPRK and pTRCSynLS and M. Gurevitz (Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel) for providing the Synechocystis sp. Syn6803Δrbc strain. Expert technical assistance by M. Braun with TEM pictures is acknowledged. We thank A. Bracher for help with structure display items and F.O. Durão, A. Meiler and B. Harbermann for support with the statistical analysis.

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  1. Oliver Mueller-Cajar

    Present address: Present address: School of Biological Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.,

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  1. Department of Cellular Biochemistry, Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry, Martinsried, Germany

    Paulo Durão, Harald Aigner, Péter Nagy, Oliver Mueller-Cajar, F Ulrich Hartl & Manajit Hayer-Hartl

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Contributions

P.D. and O.M.-C. designed the mutational screen and P.D., H.A. and P.N. performed the experiments. P.D., F.U.H. and M.H.-H. analyzed the data and F.U.H. and M.H.-H. wrote the paper on the basis of an initial draft by P.D.

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Correspondence to Manajit Hayer-Hartl.

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Supplementary information

Supplementary Text and Figures

Supplementary Results, Supplementary Tables 1–4 and Supplementary Figures 1–6. (PDF 1691 kb)

Supplementary Data Set 1

Properties of Rubisco mutants from LibWT (XLSX 20 kb)

Supplementary Data Set 2

Properties of Rubisco mutants from LibF345I (XLSX 19 kb)

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Durão, P., Aigner, H., Nagy, P. et al. Opposing effects of folding and assembly chaperones on evolvability of Rubisco. Nat Chem Biol 11, 148–155 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nchembio.1715

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