Directed Evolution of an Ultra-Fast Rubisco from a Semi-Anaerobic Environment Imparts Oxygen Resistance.

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology
Authors
Abstract

Carbon dioxide (CO) assimilation by the enzyme Ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate Carboxylase/Oxygenase (Rubisco) underpins biomass accumulation in photosynthetic bacteria and eukaryotes. Despite its pivotal role, Rubisco has a slow carboxylation rate and is competitively inhibited by oxygen (O). These traits impose limitations on photosynthetic efficiency, making Rubisco a compelling target for improvement. Interest in Form II Rubisco from bacteria, which comprise a dimer or hexamer of large subunits, arises from their nearly 5-fold higher than the average Rubisco enzyme. As well as having a fast (25.8 s at 25 °C), we show that Rubisco (GWS1B) is extremely sensitive to O inhibition, consistent with its evolution under semi-anaerobic environments. We therefore used a novel mutagenesis-mediated screening pipeline to evolve GWS1B over six rounds under oxygenic selection, identifying three catalytic point mutants with improved ambient carboxylation efficiency; Thr-29-Ala (T29A), Glu-40-Lys (E40K) and Arg-337-Cys (R337C). Full kinetic characterization showed that each substitution enhanced the CO affinity of GWS1B under oxygenic conditions by subduing oxygen affinity, leading to 25% (E40K), 11% (T29A) and 8% (R337C) enhancements in carboxylation efficiency under ambient O at 25 °C. By contrast, under the near anaerobic natural environment of , the carboxylation efficiency of each mutant was impaired ~16%. These findings demonstrate the efficacy of artificial directed evolution to access novel regions of catalytic space in Rubisco.

Year of Publication
2025
Journal
bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology
Date Published
05/2025
ISSN
2692-8205
DOI
10.1101/2025.02.17.638297
PubMed ID
40654885
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