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PLANT BIOLOGY

How atmospheric oxygen is captured by RuBisCo

Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology volume 22, page 304 (2021)Cite this article

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Fixation of carbon dioxide (CO2) through photosynthesis, which drives the global carbon cycle, is catalysed by the most abundant enzyme on Earth, ribulose 1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (RuBisCo). Despite its evolutionary success, a major problem of this enzyme is its propensity to fix molecular oxygen (O2), which is a competitive inhibitor of CO2. Each year, ~100 gigatons of oxygen are fixed by RuBisCo, causing a huge liberation of CO2 through photorespiratory metabolism. Surprisingly, our understanding of how O2 reacts with RuBisCo has remained mysterious for decades.

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References

Original article

  • Lorimer, G. H. & Andrews, T. J. Plant photorespiration — an inevitable consequence of the existence of atmospheric oxygen. Nature 243, 359–360 (1973)

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Related article

  • Bathellier, C. et al. Ribulose 1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase activates O2 by electron transfer. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 117, 24234–24242 (2020)

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research School of Biology, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia

    Guillaume Tcherkez

  2. Institut de Recherche en Horticulture et Semences, INRAe Université d’Angers, Beaucouzé, France

    Guillaume Tcherkez

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  1. Guillaume Tcherkez
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Correspondence to Guillaume Tcherkez.

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Tcherkez, G. How atmospheric oxygen is captured by RuBisCo. Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol 22, 304 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41580-021-00344-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41580-021-00344-y

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