Our limited understanding of plant systems and the dearth of genetic tools constrain our ability to engineer plants effectively for diverse applications, including agriculture, sustainability, human health, and bioenergy. However, the field of synthetic biology has opened the door to new possibilities, enabling us to introduce heterologous metabolic pathways or create entirely new-to-nature compounds that don't naturally exist in plants. As future endeavors in plant metabolic engineering become increasingly complex, we have also developed a suite of synthetic biology tools to enhance our ability to modify and manipulate plant genomes. Finally, we also leverage synthetic biology approaches to study the origins and evolution of rubisco in order to provide novel insights into the biophysical and evolutionary constraints potentially limiting photosynthesis.