Fig. 5: Different Rubisco isoforms remain active upon encapsulation while preserving the structural integrity of the QtEnc compartment.

a SDS PAGE and ¹⁴CABP binding of purified QtEnc-Rubisco compartments following staged (ST, blue shading) E. coli expression in biological duplicate experiments for tobacco NtL₈S^c₈ Rubisco and (b) co-induced (Co-I, yellow shading) and ST samples for R. rubrum Rr^cL₂ or RrL^c₂ Rubisco. Protein samples from tobacco and tobRr leaves³³ are provided as controls for quantitative measurements and subunit stoichiometry for NtL₈S₈ and RrL₂, respectively. Measurements between samples are shown as bubble plots, with the relative RbcL, RbcS and QtEnc contents quantified by gel densitometry on Coomassie-stained bands. Supplementary Fig. 4 provides a native PAGE analysis of each Rubisco before and after encapsulation. Each experiment was repeated independently at least twice with similar results. c Negative stain transmission electron micrographs of each purified ST QtEnc-Rubisco sample show that compartment morphology is preserved upon Rubisco encapsulation. Representative images shown are from a set of at least nine different images taken for each sample. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.