Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
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.
The enzyme ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase-oxygenase catalyzes the reaction between RuBP and carbon dioxide.The product is the highly unstable six-carbon intermediate known as 3-keto-2-carboxyarabinitol 1,5-bisphosphate, or 2'-carboxy-3-keto-D-arabinitol 1,5-bisphosphate (CKABP). [8]
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.
The resulting concentration of carbon dioxide near RuBisCO decreases the proportion of ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate oxygenation and thereby avoids costly photorespiratory reactions. The surrounding shell provides a barrier to carbon dioxide loss, helping to increase its concentration around RuBisCO. [4] [5] [6]
This oxaloacetate is then converted to malate and is transported into the bundle sheath cells (site of carbon dioxide fixation by RuBisCO) where oxygen concentration is low to avoid photorespiration. Here, carbon dioxide is removed from the malate and combined with RuBP by RuBisCO in the usual way, and the Calvin cycle proceeds as
Calvin–Benson cycle. C 3 carbon fixation is the most common of three metabolic pathways for carbon fixation in photosynthesis, the other two being C 4 and CAM.This process converts carbon dioxide and ribulose bisphosphate (RuBP, a 5-carbon sugar) into two molecules of 3-phosphoglycerate through the following reaction:
Carboxysomes encapsulate ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (RuBisCO) and carbonic anhydrase in CO 2-fixing bacteria as part of a CO 2 concentrating mechanism. [58] Bicarbonate is pumped into the cytosol and diffuses into the carboxysome, where carbonic anhydrase converts it to carbon dioxide, the substrate of RuBisCO.
The light-independent reactions undergo the Calvin-Benson cycle, in which the energy from NADPH and ATP is used to convert carbon dioxide and water into organic compounds via the enzyme RuBisCO. The overall general equation for the light-independent reactions is the following: [11]