Synthetic Biology of the peroxisome

Compartmentalisation is a fundamental feature of eukaryotic cells and increases efficiency and complexity by segregating incompatible reactions and concentrating intermediates. Our previous work has utlised understanding of a key protein-protein interaction between a targeting signal and receptor to produce an ‘orthogonal pair;’ which can be used to deliver user specified protein components to the peroxisome. Use of a cell compartment for synthesis of high value biochemical or storage of high value proteins can potentially have deleterious effects due to negative impacts on essential endogenous processes and reactions, therefore this project seeks to build on our previous work to try to produce a completely orthogonal peroxisome that can co-exist with the native peroxisome in S.cerevisiae and thereby circumvent this problem. The project will combine cell biology and metabolic engineering type approaches to test our understanding of the rules for making and programming the metabolism of an organelle.