Modelling the pyrenoid-based CO(2)-concentrating mechanism provides insights into its operating principles and a roadmap for its engineering into crops

Many eukaryotic photosynthetic organisms enhance their carbon uptake by supplying concentrated CO(2) to the CO(2)-fixing enzyme Rubisco in an organelle called the pyrenoid. Ongoing efforts seek to engineer this pyrenoid-based CO(2)-concentrating mechanism (PCCM) into crops to increase yields. Here we develop a computational model for a PCCM on the basis of the postulated mechanism in the green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. Our model recapitulates all Chlamydomonas PCCM-deficient mutant phenotypes and yields general biophysical principles underlying the PCCM. We show that an effective and energetically efficient PCCM requires a physical barrier to reduce pyrenoid CO(2) leakage, as well as proper enzyme localization to reduce futile cycling between CO(2) and HCO(3)(−). Importantly, our model demonstrates the feasibility of a purely passive CO(2) uptake strategy at air-level CO(2), while active HCO(3)(−) uptake proves advantageous at lower CO(2) levels. We propose a four-step engineering path to increase the rate of CO(2) fixation in the plant chloroplast up to threefold at a theoretical cost of only 1.3 ATP per CO(2) fixed, thereby offering a framework to guide the engineering of a PCCM into land plants.