Localizing the Most Highly Conserved Proteins in Photosynthetic Organisms

Abstract

Global food demand is projected to double by 2050. To meet this increased demand without causing further environmental degradation through land conversion, crop yields must be increased on existing agricultural land. One promising route for increasing yields is to genetically modify crop plants to have greater photosynthetic efficiency. Progress has already been made in improving the photosynthetic efficiency of some plants through genetic editing and more significant increases are possible through more complex editing. However, such improvements are constrained by the fact that the identities and specific functions of many genes with putative roles in photosynthesis are currently unknown. The GreenCut2 list of proteins, which are conserved in photosynthetic organisms, provides many promising candidates for involvement in photosynthetic function. Using a high throughput fluorescence tagging method, we determined the localizations of 53 GreenCut2 proteins in the model alga, Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. 27 of these proteins were found to localize to the chloroplast, 20 of which were not previously known to be in the chloroplast proteome. Our results expand the known list of photosynthesis related proteins and provide valuable clues as to their function, improving our understanding of photosynthesis and enabling improved genetic engineering of crop plants.