On October 2, a paper by the research group of Professor Yusuke Matsuda (School of Biological and Environmental Sciences)  entitled "Diatom pyrenoids are encased in a protein shell that enables efficient CO2 fixation” was posted online in the Cell scientific journal. Cell, an international journal published by Cell Press, is counted as one of the world’s leading scientific journals alongside Nature and Science, and is a world-leading academic journal in the field of life sciences.

Prof. Matsuda’s team discovered a new protein which enables marine diatoms to conduct highly efficient photosynthetic reactions, and shed light on the molecular mechanism which enables that highly efficient CO2 fixation through the latest gene sequencing and cryo-electron microscopy. These research findings will significantly contribute to understanding CO2 fixation reactions globally, and are thought to provide important indicators for future ocean environmental forecasts, and ultimately for global-level environmental forecasts, from the molecular level. Microalgae are also a promising source of bioenergy, and are expected to provide a new direction for the next generation of chloroplast engineering for highly efficient diatom bioenergy production from seawater and sunlight.

Prof. Matsuda commented, “Diatoms are microorganisms responsible for 20% of the CO2 fixation on the planet. Their chloroplasts have unique structures at their centers known as pyrenoids. The pyrenoid is where CO2-fixing enzymes aggregate and efficiently fix CO2, but it disintegrates when the cell is crushed. We successfully prevented the pyrenoid from disintegrating in 2016 using special artificial amino acids, and discovered the shell which surrounds it (Pyrenoid+Shell=PyShell). Later, using cryo-electron microscopy and genome editing techniques, we discovered that PyShell is essential for pyrenoid formation and is a protein that supports photosynthesis in the ocean.  It took a great deal of time, but our research has come to fruition in the best possible way, and I am deeply moved. In the future, we hope to fully shed light on the pyrenoid formation process, and get closer to the essence of marine chloroplasts.”