Plant biotechnology articles within Nature

Featured

• Correspondence | 17 February 2010

  The Rubisco enzyme and agricultural productivity

  • John R. Porter
  •  & Bernd Wollenweber

• Article | 14 January 2010

  Coupled chaperone action in folding and assembly of hexadecameric Rubisco

  Form I Rubisco, one of the most abundant proteins in nature, catalyses the fixation of atmospheric CO₂ in photosynthesis. The limited catalytic efficiency of Rubisco has sparked extensive efforts to re-engineer the enzyme to enhance agricultural productivity. To bring this goal closer, the formation of cyanobacterial form I Rubisco is now analysed by in vitro reconstitution and cryo-electron microscopy.

  • Cuimin Liu
  • , Anna L. Young
  •  & Manajit Hayer-Hartl

• News & Views | 13 January 2010

  Tackling unintelligent design

  The key enzyme in photosynthesis, Rubisco, is a relic of a bygone age. The ability to assemble Rubisco in the test tube offers the prospect of genetically manipulating the enzyme to make it fit for the modern world.

  • R. John Ellis