In order to improve photosynthetic efficiency, bacteria often enclose RubisCO and carbonic anhydrase into microcompartments called carboxysomes. Assembly of these complexes requires a protein called CcmM. It had previously been thought that CcmM mediated RubisCO assembly by displacing one of the RubisCO subunits, Ryan et al. show that despite having a three-dimensional structure that closely resembles the RubisCO small subunit, CcmM does not dislodge it, leading to a proposal for an alternative binding location. These results provide a new model for carboxysome assembly with implications for photosynthetic engineering.
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