Life Sciences & Biotechnology
Title : | Using CRISPR to characterise CO₂-Concentrating Mechanism components in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii |
Area of research : | Life Sciences & Biotechnology |
Focus area : | Genetic Engineering, Microbial Biotechnology |
Principal Investigator : | Dr. Ananya Mukherjee, Azim Premji University, Karnataka |
Timeline Start Year : | 2024 |
Timeline End Year : | 2026 |
Contact info : | ananya.mukherjee14@gmail.com |
Details
Executive Summary : | The global population is expected to reach 9.8 billion by 2050, necessitating a 90% increase in food production. However, constraints such as decreased farmland, drought, and climate change have severely affected food production. Genetic engineering techniques can help boost crop yields by improving photosynthetic enhancement. Marine organisms, responsible for 50% of the world's photosynthesis, have an adaptation called the CO₂ concentration mechanism (CCM) that increases the concentration of CO₂ around Rubisco to increase carboxylation and photosynthetic yield. Understanding how the CCM works could improve photosynthetic yield in food crops without these adaptations.
One marine microbe, Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, has a fully sequenced genome and is capable of mixotrophic growth. It has an electron dense organelle, pyrenoid, that localizes the bulk of the Rubisco where CO₂ is concentrated. Chlamydomonas has several essential proteins that help maintain the CCM functional. However, an incomplete picture of the CCM has deterred attempts to introduce it in higher plants. Interactome and transcriptomic studies have hypothesized several identified but uncharacterised proteins as CCM components. Targeted gene editing like CRISPR has recently gained high success in Chlamydomonas, aiming to introduce specific mutations in genes of interest in the background of existing single mutants. A new technique of in situ protein tagging using CRISPR will be used to tag existing and putative CCM proteins with BioID for affinity mass spectrometry studies, leading to a better understanding of CCM induction and signaling components involved. |
Total Budget (INR): | 20,15,810 |
Organizations involved