Structural, Functional, and Evolutionary Analysis of Ribulose-1,5-Bisphosphate Carboxylase from the Chromophytic Alga Olisthodiscus luteus

Ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase (RuBPCase) was purified from the marine chromophyte Olisthodiscus luteus. This study represents the first extensive analysis of RuBPCase from a chromophytic plant species as well as from an organism where both subunits of the enzyme are encoded on the chloroplast genome. The size of the purified holoenzyme (17.9 Svedberg units, 588 kilodaltons) was determined by sedimentation analysis and the size of the subunits (55 kilodaltons, 15 kilodaltons) ascertained by analytical sodium dodecyl sulfate gel electrophoresis. This data predicts either an 8:9 or 8:8 ratio of the large to small subunits in the holoenzyme. Amino acid analyses demonstrate that the O. luteus RuBPCase large subunit is highly conserved and the small subunit much less so when compared with the chlorophytic plant peptides. The catalytic optima of pH and Mg(2+) have been determined as well as the response of enzyme catalysis to temperature. The requirements of NaHCO(3) and Mg(2+) for enzyme activation have also been analyzed. The Michaelis constants for the substrates of the carboxylation reaction (CO(2) and ribulose bisphosphate) were shown to be 45 and 48 micromolar, respectively. Competitive inhibition by oxygen of RuBPCase-catalyzed CO(2) fixation was also demonstrated. These data demonstrate that a high degree of RuBPCase conservation occurs among widely divergent photoautotrophs regardless of small subunit coding site.