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RuBisCO is important biologically because it catalyzes the primary chemical reaction by which inorganic carbon enters the biosphere.While many autotrophic bacteria and archaea fix carbon via the reductive acetyl CoA pathway, the 3-hydroxypropionate cycle, or the reverse Krebs cycle, these pathways are relatively small contributors to global carbon fixation compared to that catalyzed by RuBisCO.
C 4 photosynthesis reduces photorespiration by concentrating CO 2 around RuBisCO. To enable RuBisCO to work in a cellular environment where there is a lot of carbon dioxide and very little oxygen, C 4 leaves generally contain two partially isolated compartments called mesophyll cells and bundle-sheath cells.
C 2 photosynthesis (also called glycine shuttle and photorespiratory CO 2 pump) is a CCM that works by making use of – as opposed to avoiding – photorespiration. It performs carbon refixation by delaying the breakdown of photorespired glycine, so that the molecule is shuttled from the mesophyll into the bundle sheath .
Ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase oxygenase, commonly abbreviated to RuBisCO, is the enzyme involved in the first major step of carbon fixation, the production of two molecules of 3-phosphoglycerate from CO 2 and ribulose bisphosphate, as shown in the diagram at left. RuBisCO is thought to be the single most abundant protein on Earth. [31]
2-Phosphoglycolate (chemical formula C 2 H 2 O 6 P 3-; also known as phosphoglycolate, 2-PG, or PG) is a natural metabolic product of the oxygenase reaction mediated by the enzyme ribulose 1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase (RuBisCo). Photorespiration serves as a salvage pathway that converts 2-PG into non-toxic metabolites. Contrary to the Calvin ...
Photosynthesis usually refers to oxygenic photosynthesis, a process that produces oxygen. Photosynthetic organisms store the chemical energy so produced within intracellular organic compounds (compounds containing carbon) like sugars, glycogen , cellulose and starches .
Because RuBisCO is operating in an environment with much more CO 2 than it otherwise would be, it performs more efficiently. [citation needed] [26] In C 4 photosynthesis, carbon is fixed by an enzyme called PEP carboxylase, which, like all enzymes involved in C 4 photosynthesis, originated from non-photosynthetic ancestral enzymes. [27] [28]
During C 4 photosynthesis, an evolved pathway to increase localized CO 2 concentrations under the threat of enhanced photorespiration, CO 2 is captured within mesophyll cells, fixed as oxaloacetate, converted into malate and released internally within bundle sheath cells to directly feed RuBisCO activity. [9]