Tertiary structure of plant RuBisCO: Domains and their contacts

The three-dimensional structure of ribulose-1,5-biphosphate carboxylase-oxygenase (RuBisCO), has been determined at 2.6 Å resolution. This enzyme initiates photosynthesis by combining carbon dioxide with ribulose bisphosphate to form two molecules of 3-phosphoglycerate. In plants, RuBisCO is built from eight large (L) and eight small (S) polypeptide chains, or subunits. Both S chains and the NH₂-terminal domain (N) of L are antiparallel β, "open-face-sandwich" domains with four-stranded β sheets and flanking α helices. The main domain (B) of L is an α/β barrel containing most of the catalytic residues. The active site is in a pocket at the opening of the barrel that is partly covered by the N domain of a neighboring L chain. The domain contacts of the molecule and its conserved residues are discussed in terms of this structure.