Biology is organized in space and time to allow organisms to grow and compete. Even the simplest bacteria use miniature, soccer ball-like “microcompartments” to house pathways of chemical reactions, allowing them to grow and process molecules that would otherwise be unavailable to them. Over 45 different types (“phyla”) of bacteria have genes for such microcompartments, including some that grow using sunlight and some which grow in our gut. This project studies the impact of geometry and permeability of microcompartments in two distantly related bacteria under varying realistic environments. Studying two distinct organisms will provide generalizable understanding of how such microcompartments are built and regulated. This knowledge will be useful to provide new paths for bioengineering chemical production of specialty chemicals as well as for control of bacterial pathogens. The team will couple these research efforts with educational, training, and science policy outreach programs. The PIs will integrate undergraduate researchers into the research and develop a new case study for undergraduate courses used by at least 4 universities on protein engineering. In concert with the scientific research, the team will conduct an analysis of the potential of synthetic biology to support new manufacturing strategies as part of the growing bioeconomy. This study compares two representative and evolutionarily distinct types of bacterial microcompartments (BMCs): anabolic carboxysomes