How Rubisco Became Dependent on a Small Subunit
Author Information
Author(s): Luca Schulz, Jan Zarzycki, Wieland Steinchen, Georg K A Hochberg, Tobias J Erb
Primary Institution: Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology
Hypothesis
What factors cause essentiality to persist over evolutionary timescales in protein complexes?
Conclusion
Rubisco's dependence on its small subunit has evolved through multiple, genetically distinct mechanisms that ensure its essentiality over billions of years.
Supporting Evidence
- Rubisco's essentiality can arise through the accumulation of changes that are tolerated in the complex state but would be harmful for standalone components.
- Layering multiple mechanisms of essentiality can lead to its persistence, even if any given mechanism reverts.
- New interaction partners can drastically reshape which substitutions are tolerated in the proteins they are recruited into.
Takeaway
Rubisco, a key enzyme in photosynthesis, needs a small partner to work properly, and this need developed in different ways over a very long time.
Methodology
The study used ancestral sequence reconstruction and various biochemical assays to investigate the mechanisms behind Rubisco's dependence on its small subunit.
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
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