Cyanobacteria, gram-negative prokaryotic microorganisms, perform oxygenic photosynthesis with a photosynthetic machinery similar to higher plants which includes ribulose 1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (RuBisCO) as the main CO2-fixing enzyme. Currently, there is a growing interest to use cyanobacteria as photosynthetic microbial cell factories for the direct production of solar fuels or other compounds of human interest. However, rates and efficiencies to produce e.g. biofuels are still very low. The amount of available fixed carbon for the synthesis of desired product(s) may be one of the limiting steps. This contribution reviews CO2-fixation in cyanobacteria with focus on CO2-concentrating mechanisms, RuBisCO, phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase and other carboxylases, engineering approaches for increased carbon fixation, and finally the synthetic malonyl-CoA-oxaloacetate-glyoxylate pathways.

Synechocystis PCC 6803 strains overexpressing pepc, gene encoding the carbon fixing enzyme phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase (PEPc), were constructed and characterized for growth, PEPc protein content and in vitro PEPc activities. Synechocystis strains WT + Km(r) - one (native) copy of pepc (control), WT + 2xPEPc - native copy of pepc and two additional native copies of pepc (in total three copies of pepc), and WT + PPM - native copies of ppsa (encoding phosphoenolpyruvate synthase), pepc and mdh (encoding malate dehydrogenase) and one additional copy of each gene (in total two copies each of ppsa, pepc and mdh) were analyzed for growth under normal and low light intensities, and in darkness (no growth). No significant differences in the growth rates were observed when the cells were grown under normal light intensity. However, growth under low light intensity (3 mu mol photons.m(-2).sec(-1)) resulted in increased growth rate, in particular in the strain with 3 copies of pepc. SDS-PAGE/Western immunoblots using antibodies directed against PEPc demonstrated an increased level of PEPc protein with increasing number of copies of pepc. This was followed by increased levels of in vitro PEPc activities. A less efficient ribulose 1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase in combination with reduced levels of NADPH and ATP under low light condition may make the relatively more efficient carbon fixing enzyme PEPc the limiting step for growth under this condition.

Phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase (PEPc) is an essential enzyme in plants. A photosynthetic form is present both as dimer and tetramer in C4 and CAM metabolism. Additionally, non-photosynthetic PEPcs are also present. The single, non-photosynthetic PEPc of the unicellular cyanobacterium Synechococcus PCC 7002 (Synechococcus), involved in the TCA cycle, was examined. Using size exclusion chromatography (SEC) and small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS), we observed that PEPc in Synechococcus exists as both a dimer and a tetramer. This is the first demonstration of two different oligomerization states of a non-photosynthetic PEPc. High concentration of Mg²⁺, the substrate PEP and a combination of low concentration of Mg²⁺ and HCO₃⁻ induced the tetramer form of the carboxylase. Using SEC-SAXS analysis, we showed that the oligomerization state of the carboxylase is concentration dependent and that, among the available crystal structures of PEPc, the scattering profile of PEPc of Synechococcus agrees best with the structure of PEPc from Escherichia coli. In addition, the kinetics of the tetramer purified in presence of Mg²⁺ using SEC, and of the mixed population purified in presence of Mg²⁺ using a Strep-tagged column were examined. Moreover, the enzyme showed interesting allosteric regulation, being activated by succinate and inhibited by glutamine, and not affected by either malate, 2-oxoglutarate, aspartic acid or citric acid.

Background: Cyanobacteria can be metabolically engineered to convert CO2 to fuels and chemicals such as ethylene. A major challenge in such efforts is to optimize carbon fixation and partition towards target molecules.

Results: The efe gene encoding an ethylene-forming enzyme was introduced into a strain of the cyanobacterium Synechocystis PCC 6803 with increased phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase (PEPc) levels. The resulting engineered strain (CD-P) showed significantly increased ethylene production (10.5 +/- 3.1 mu g mL(-1) OD-1 day(-1)) compared to the control strain (6.4 +/- 1.4 mu g mL(-1) OD-1 day(-1)). Interestingly, extra copies of the native pepc or the heterologous expression of PEPc from the cyanobacterium Synechococcus PCC 7002 (Synechococcus) in the CD-P, increased ethylene production (19.2 +/- 1.3 and 18.3 +/- 3.3 mu g mL(-1) OD-1 day(-1), respectively) when the cells were treated with the acetyl-CoA carboxylase inhibitor, cycloxydim. A heterologous expression of phosphoenolpyruvate synthase (PPSA) from Synechococcus in the CD-P also increased ethylene production (16.77 +/- 4.48 mu g mL(-1) OD-1 day(-1)) showing differences in the regulation of the native and the PPSA from Synechococcus in Synechocystis.

Conclusions: This work demonstrates that genetic rewiring of cyanobacterial central carbon metabolism can enhance carbon supply to the TCA cycle and thereby further increase ethylene production.