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Two new high-resolution crystal structures of carboxysome pentamer proteins reveal high structural conservation of CcmL orthologs among distantly related cyanobacterial species

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Abstract

Cyanobacteria have evolved a unique carbon fixation organelle known as the carboxysome that compartmentalizes the enzymes RuBisCO and carbonic anhydrase. This effectively increases the local CO2 concentration at the active site of RuBisCO and decreases its relatively unproductive side reaction with oxygen. Carboxysomes consist of a protein shell composed of hexameric and pentameric proteins arranged in icosahedral symmetry. Facets composed of hexameric proteins are connected at the vertices by pentameric proteins. Structurally homologous pentamers and hexamers are also found in heterotrophic bacteria where they form architecturally related microcompartments such as the Eut and Pdu organelles for the metabolism of ethanolamine and propanediol, respectively. Here we describe two new high-resolution structures of the pentameric shell protein CcmL from the cyanobacteria Thermosynechococcus elongatus and Gloeobacter violaceus and provide detailed analysis of their characteristics and comparison with related shell proteins.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the entire staff at the Advanced Light Source, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, which is supported by the Director, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, of the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231. CAK and SCW are supported by the NSF (EF1105897). MS was supported by a Swiss National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. United States Department of Energy – Joint Genome Institute, Walnut Creek, CA, 94598, USA

    Markus Sutter, Samuel Deutsch & Cheryl A. Kerfeld

  2. Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA

    Steven C. Wilson & Cheryl A. Kerfeld

  3. Berkeley Synthetic Biology Institute, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA

    Cheryl A. Kerfeld

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  1. Markus Sutter
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  2. Steven C. Wilson
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  3. Samuel Deutsch
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  4. Cheryl A. Kerfeld
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Correspondence to Cheryl A. Kerfeld.

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Sutter, M., Wilson, S.C., Deutsch, S. et al. Two new high-resolution crystal structures of carboxysome pentamer proteins reveal high structural conservation of CcmL orthologs among distantly related cyanobacterial species. Photosynth Res 118, 9–16 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11120-013-9909-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11120-013-9909-z

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