PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Hill, Nicholas C. AU - Tay, Jian Wei AU - Altus, Sabina AU - Bortz, David M. AU - Cameron, Jeffrey C. TI - Life cycle of a cyanobacterial carboxysome AID - 10.1126/sciadv.aba1269 DP - 2020 May 01 TA - Science Advances PG - eaba1269 VI - 6 IP - 19 4099 - http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/6/19/eaba1269.short 4100 - http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/6/19/eaba1269.full SO - Sci Adv2020 May 01; 6 AB - Carboxysomes, prototypical bacterial microcompartments (BMCs) found in cyanobacteria, are large (~1 GDa) and essential protein complexes that enhance CO2 fixation. While carboxysome biogenesis has been elucidated, the activity dynamics, lifetime, and degradation of these structures have not been investigated, owing to the inability of tracking individual BMCs over time in vivo. We have developed a fluorescence-imaging platform to simultaneously measure carboxysome number, position, and activity over time in a growing cyanobacterial population, allowing individual carboxysomes to be clustered on the basis of activity and spatial dynamics. We have demonstrated both BMC degradation, characterized by abrupt activity loss followed by polar recruitment of the deactivated complex, and a subclass of ultraproductive carboxysomes. Together, our results reveal the BMC life cycle after biogenesis and describe the first method for measuring activity of single BMCs in vivo.