Spurring production of a sluggish enzyme for crop yields »

Rubisco has baffled scientists for over 50 years, as it is thousands of times less efficient at its job than most other enzymes. Australian scientists have found a way to improve production of an enzyme essential to plant growth. The discovery advances efforts to improve global food security that aim to increase the yields of some of our most important staple crops, such as wheat, cotton and rice. "The enzyme Rubisco has baffled scientists for over 50 years, as it is thousands of times less efficient at its job than most other enzymes," said Dr Spencer Whitney from The Australian National University (ANU) who was leader of the research team from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Translational Photosynthesis. Much of the confusion stems from the highly complex structure of Rubisco. It is an enzyme with 16 pieces that requires the assistance of more than 12 other proteins to assemble it correctly. "We focussed on one of Rubisco's partner proteins, called RAF1.