Structural Properties and Ribulosebisphosphate Carboxylase and Oxygenase Activity of Fraction-1 Protein from the Marine Alga Halimeda cylindracea (Chlorophyta)

Abstract

Ribulosebisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase activity was detected in Halimeda cylindracea and Chaetomorpha crassa. In H. cylindracea carboxylase activity (72-250 micromoles CO₂ fixed per hour per milligram chlorophyll) was sufficient to account for measured photosynthetic rates. The activity of the oxygenase was only 1 % that of the carboxylase but otherwise both enzymes showed properties similar to those of the same enzymes in higher green plants. Fraction-1 protein from H. cylindracea was purified to a homogeneous state as tested by poly- acrylamide gel electrophoresis at pH 8.9. The activity of the ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase in the purified preparations was 0.1 micromoles CO₂ fixed per minute per milligram protein (pH 7.0). The H. cylindracea fraction-1 protein was shown to comprise two subunits, A and B, with molecular weights 5.4 × 10⁴, and 1.35 x 10⁴, respectively, typical of the plant-type ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase. The amino acid composition of the large subunit A was similar to that from spinach and Chlorella enzymes, whereas that of the subunit B was markedly distinguishable from the enzymes of other origins. The close resemblance of the H. cylindricea protein to the plant enzymes was further supported by the formation of a spur in the double immunodiffusion precipitation line, indicating probable existence of sequence-homology of the catalytic larger subunit A, typical of the plant-type enzyme molecules.