BIOMOLECULES AND ENZYMES

Detailed explanation-1: -RuBisCO catalyzes a reaction between CO2 and RuBP, which forms a six-carbon compound that is immediately converted into two three-carbon compounds. This process is called carbon fixation, because CO2 is “fixed” from its inorganic form into organic molecules.

Detailed explanation-2: -Typical enzymes can process a thousand molecules per second, but rubisco fixes only about three carbon dioxide molecules per second. Plant cells compensate for this slow rate by building lots of the enzyme. Chloroplasts are filled with rubisco, which comprises half of the protein.

Detailed explanation-3: -Indeed, the most important biological mechanism for fixing carbon dioxide is very inefficient, which is very much down to one enzyme: ribulose‐1, 5‐bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase, or RuBisCo for short.

Detailed explanation-4: -Ribulose-1, 5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (Rubisco) is Earth’s most abundant enzyme, used by autotrophic organisms to convert CO2 into organic compounds via the Calvin-Benson pathway (Andersson and Backlund, 2008).

Detailed explanation-5: -Since, RuBisCO catalyses a dismutation reaction, it was earlier also called carboxy dismutase.