Crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM) is an important elaboration of photosynthetic carbon fixation that allows chloroplast-containing cells to fix CO2 initially at night using phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase (PEPC) in the cytosol. This leads to the formation of C4 organic acids (usually malate), which are stored in the vacuole. Subsequent daytime decarboxylation of these organic acids behind clos...

Crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM) is an important elaboration of photosynthetic carbon fixation that allows chloroplast-containing cells to fix CO2 initially at night using phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase (PEPC) in the cytosol. This leads to the formation of C4 organic acids (usually malate), which are stored in the vacuole. Subsequent daytime decarboxylation of these organic acids behind clos...

Upon ratification, the recent climate treaty negotiated in Kyoto, Japan, would require the United States and other developed nations to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases below 1990 levels by the year 2010. Because most anthropogenic greenhouse-gas emissions (particularly CO2) come from the use of fossil energy, this agreement has the potential to affect the entire fabric of society. He...

Biocatalysts, capable of efficiently transforming CO2 into other more reduced forms of carbon, offer sustainable alternatives to current oxidative technologies that rely on diminishing natural fossil-fuel deposits. Enzymes that catalyse CO2 fixation steps in carbon assimilation pathways are promising catalysts for the sustainable transformation of this safe and renewable feedstock into central ...

Chemical fixation of CO2 to value-added products/materials/fuel has attracted more and more attention from both academia and governmental agencies all over the worldsince CO2 is an easily available and sustainable C1 resource with the advantage of being abundant, nontoxic, nonflammable and renewable. Synthesis of organic carbonates starting from CO2 is one of the most promising methodologies an...

The last decade has seen significant advances in our understanding of the physiology, ecology, and molecular biology of chemoautotrophic bacteria. Many ecosystems are dependent on CO2 fixation by either free-living or symbiotic chemoautotrophs. CO2 fixation in the chemoautotroph occurs via the Calvin-Benson-Bassham cycle. The cycle is characterized by three unique enzymatic activities: ribulose...

Elevated CO2 concentrations were found to cause early senescence during leaf development in sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) plants, probably by reducing nitrogen availability since key enzymes of nitrogen metabolism, including nitrate reductase (NR); glutamine synthetase (GS) and glutamate dehydrogenase (GDH), were affected. Elevated CO2 concentrations significantly decreased the activity of n...

Natural photosynthesis harnesses solar energy to convert CO2 and water to value-added chemical products for sustaining life. We present a hybrid bioinorganic approach to solar-to-chemical conversion in which sustainable electrical and/or solar input drives production of hydrogen from water splitting using biocompatible inorganic catalysts. The hydrogen is then used by living cells as a source o...

Ralstonia eutropha is a facultative chemolithoautotrophic bacterium that uses the Calvin-Benson-Bassham (CBB) cycle for CO2 fixation. This study showed that R. eutropha strain H16G incorporated (13)CO2, emitted by the oxidative decarboxylation of [1-(13)C1]-glucose, into key metabolites of the CBB cycle and finally into poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) [P(3HB)] with up to 5.6% (13)C abundance. The carbo...

Iron nutrient deficiency was investigated in leaves of hydroponically grown sugar beets (Beta vulgaris) to determine how ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (Rubisco) gene expression is affected when thylakoid components of photosynthesis are diminished. Rubisco polypeptide content was reduced by 60% in severely iron-stressed leaves, and the reduction was directly correlated to chlo...