Australian Researchers Engineer Encapsulins to Supercharge Photosynthesis in Crops

Australian researchers have achieved a breakthrough in synthetic biology by engineering nanoscale compartments called encapsulins to significantly enhance photosynthesis in major food crops such as wheat and rice. Led by teams from the University of Sydney and the Australian National University, the five-year project tackled the Rubisco enzyme. By creating nanoscale "offices" for Rubisco, the scientists aim to enable future crops to produce higher yields while drastically reducing water use and the need for costly nitrogen fertilizers.

The innovation centers on using encapsulins, simple bacterial protein cages that require only one gene to assemble, likened to self-assembling "Lego blocks." The team's method involves attaching a 14-amino acid "address tag" to the Rubisco enzyme, effectively directing it into the assembling encapsulin shell. This modular approach is a major advantage over natural carbon-concentrating systems found in algae and cyanobacteria, which are structurally complicated and can only package their native Rubisco. Crucially, the researchers confirmed that the pores in the encapsulin shell allow the necessary molecules—Rubisco's substrate and products—to enter and exit.

While this successful work is currently a proof of concept published in Nature Communications, early-stage plant experiments are already underway at the ANU. The next essential step is to introduce the encapsulin system into plants and add the components needed to create the high-performance environment for Rubisco. If successful, this technology will bypass Rubisco's natural tendency to mistakenly react with oxygen instead of carbon dioxide, a process that wastes energy and nitrogen. This synthetic biology solution could revolutionize farming by enabling greater crop productivity with fewer resources.

For more details, read the news article on the University of Sydney website.