High-Resolution Crystal Structure of Chloroplastic Ribose-5-Phosphate Isomerase from <i>Chlamydomonas reinhardtii</i>—An Enzyme Involved in the Photosynthetic Calvin-Benson Cycle

Abstract

The Calvin–Benson cycle is the key metabolic pathway of photosynthesis responsible for carbon fixation and relies on eleven conserved enzymes. Ribose-5-phosphate isomerase (RPI) isomerizes ribose-5-phosphate into ribulose-5-phosphate and contributes to the regeneration of the Rubisco substrate. Plant RPI is the target of diverse post-translational modifications including phosphorylation and thiol-based modifications to presumably adjust its activity to the photosynthetic electron flow. Here, we describe the first experimental structure of a photosynthetic RPI at 1.4 Å resolution. Our structure confirms the composition of the catalytic pocket of the enzyme. We describe the homo-dimeric state of the protein that we observed in the crystal and in solution. We also map the positions of previously reported post-translational modifications and propose mechanisms by which they may impact the catalytic parameters. The structural data will inform the biochemical modeling of photosynthesis.

Keywords

• photosynthesis
• chloroplast
• Calvin–Benson cycle
• protein structure
• X-ray crystallography
• ribose isomerase