CAPP: Combining Algal and Plant Photosynthesis

Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.

There is a clear and present need to increase crop productivity to feed a burgeoning population. The primary carboxylase, Rubisco constitutes up to 50% of the protein in C3 plant leaves, the large investment in catalytic protein in part determined by the inherently low operating efficiency and slow turnover rate of this enzyme. Oxygen competes with CO2 at the active site, wasting energy and resulting in loss of assimilated carbon and nitrogen through photorespiration. Many algae possess a biophysical carbon concentrating mechanism (CCM), based on bicarbonate pumping systems, which enhances CO2 concentration within a subcellular compartment called the pyrenoid, so as to suppress photorespiration.
The aim of the CAPP programme - a collaboration between Stanford University, USA, Cambridge University, UK, Oxford Brookes University, UK and the John Innes Centre - is to transfer elements of the algal CCM from Chlamydomonas into Arabidopsis, leading to increased higher plant productivity. The programme will discover and characterise novel components of the algal CCM, including pyrenoid components, supramolecular complexes and their chaperones (work to be done in Stanford and Cambridge Universities). Known components (e.g. bicarbonate pump(s) and carbonic anhydrases) and, progressively, key newly-discovered components, will be transferred to Arabidopsis and their impact on photosynthesis will be assessed (work to be done at the John Innes Centre). Mathematical modelling will be used to determine existing plastidic carbon concentrating limitations and identify mechanisms to improve CO2 concentration and retention within the Arabidopsis chloroplast (work to be done at Oxford Brookes).

unavailable