What makes Rubisco tick?
Research projects are available that are aimed at improving our fundamental understanding of the function and necessity of Rubisco N-terminal modifications and explore which residues in Rubisco and its helper protein, Rubisco activase, influence their selective interaction. This information is paramount for our ongoing efforts to engineer and transplant more efficient Rubisco into crops using plastid chloroplast transformation technology. A number of mutant transgenic lines producing a foreign or mutated Rubisco are already available for molecular, biochemical and physiological analysis. Adapting from nature Rubisco in higher plants is not the pinnacle of evolution. We have identified more efficient Rubiscos in non-green algae that can discriminate twice as effectively against O2 while maintaining a high carboxylation efficiency. Even within higher plant species there is significant diversity in their kinetics. Projects are available to characterize the genetic and biochemical properti
