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Advances In Understanding Carboxysome Assembly In Prochlorococcus And Synechococcus Implicate Csos2 As A Critical Component, Fei Cai, Zhicheng Dou, Susan L. Bernstein, Ryan Leverenz, Eric B. Williams, Sabine Heinhorst, Jessup M. Shively, Gordon C. Cannon, Cheryl A. Kerfeld

Faculty Publications

The marine Synechococcus and Prochlorococcus are the numerically dominant cyanobacteria in the ocean and important in global carbon fixation. They have evolved a CO₂-concentrating-mechanism, of which the central component is the carboxysome, a self-assembling proteinaceous organelle. Two types of carboxysome, α and β, encapsulating form IA and form IB d-ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase, respectively, differ in gene organization and associated proteins. In contrast to the β-carboxysome, the assembly process of the α-carboxysome is enigmatic. Moreover, an absolutely conserved α-carboxysome protein, CsoS2, is of unknown function and has proven recalcitrant to crystallization. Here, we present studies on the CsoS2 protein in …