Examining how plant photosynthesis and growth is influenced by transplanting foriegn or modified Rubisco into higher plant chloroplasts.

In nature, Rubisco shows considerable catalytic diversity with some variants in red algae having properties that surpass those in higher plants. Replacement of higher plant Rubisco with that of some red-algae and other plant species has the potential to improve photosynthetic C-assimilation. This research project is transforming the chloroplastone genome of our tobacco-masterline (Whitney and Sharwood, 2008, J Exp Bot, 59, 1909-1921) to transplant in modified tobacco rbcL and foreign Rubisco genes to examine their folding and assembly properties in chloroplasts and their effect on catalysis, leaf photosynthesis and plant growth.

Suggest reading:

• Whitney S.M., Houtz R.L and Alonso H (2010) Advancing our understanding and capacity to engineer nature’s CO2 sequestering enzyme, Rubisco Plant Physiology (in press)
• http://www.plantphysiol.org/cgi/content/short/pp.110.164814?keytype=ref&ijkey=4sLzrBFcTCIbXc3
• Whitney S.M and Sharwood R.E (2008) Construction of a tobacco master line to improve Rubisco engineering in chloroplasts. Journal of Experimental Botany, 59, 1909-1921
• Andrews, T.J. and Whitney, S.M. (2003) Manipulating rubisco in the chloroplasts of higher plants. Archives of Biochemistry and Biophysics 414: 159-169