Rubisco
In addition to the cases already mentioned, reversegenetics has been instrumental in the characterization
of other plastid-encoded proteins. Targeted deletion of the
rbcL gene coding for the large subunit of Rubisco,
combined with its allotropic expression, was accomplished
several years ago [21]. More recently, replacement of the
hexadecameric tobacco Rubisco (which is made up of large
and small subunits) by the less efficient homodimeric
Rubisco from a red alga (without small subunits) resulted
in the expected change in the properties of the photosynthetic
machinery [22], an important step towards the
direct alteration of net efficiency of photosynthesis.