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Title: Role of the Rubisco small subunit. Final report for period May 1, 1997--April 30,2000

Technical Report ·
DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/809467· OSTI ID:809467

CO{sub 2} and O{sub 2} are mutually competitive at the active site of ribulose-1,5-biphosphate (RuBP) carboxylase/oxygenase (Rubisco). Rubisco contains two subunits, each present in eight copies. The 15-kD small subunit is coded by a family of nuclear RbcS genes. Until now, the role of the small subunit in Rubisco structure or catalytic efficiency is not known. Because of other work in eliminating the two RbcS genes in the green algo Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, it is now possible to address questions about the structure-function relationships of the eukaryotic small subunit. There are three specific aims in this project: (1) Alanine scanning mutagenesis is being used to dissect the importance of the {beta}A/{beta}B loop, a feature unique to the eukaryotic small subunit. (2) Random mutagenesis is being used to identify additional residues or regions of the small subunit that are important for holoenzyme assembly and function. (3) Attempts are being made to express foreign small subunits in Chlamydomonas to examine the contribution of small subunits to holoenzyme assembly, catalytic efficiency, and CO{sub 2}/O{sub 2} specificity.

Research Organization:
University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE (US)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Energy Research (ER) (US)
DOE Contract Number:
FG02-97ER20261
OSTI ID:
809467
Report Number(s):
DOE/ER/20261-1; TRN: US200311%%296
Resource Relation:
Other Information: PBD: 4 Oct 2000; PBD: 4 Oct 2000
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English