Munich - German scientists have succeeded in reproducing a complex protein that could help in the fight against climate-change, the Max Planck Institute in Munich reported Wednesday. The protein, known as Rubisco, is a vital part of the photosynthesis process, by which plants convert carbon dioxide (CO2) and water into oxygen and sugar in the presence of light.
The researchers at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry in Munich and Munich University now hope they can make the protein more efficient, thereby boosting the rate at which plants can sequester C02, the main greenhouse gas contributing to global warming.
"Because the modified Rubisco is predicted to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere more effectively it would enhance crop yields, and could be interesting for climate protection," said Manajit Hayer-Hartl, project leader at MPI.
Rubisco - full name Ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase oxygenase - is a highly complex, but inefficient, enzyme that scientists have never been able to artificially create, until now.
"Rubisco is one of the most important proteins on the planet, but it is also one of the most inefficient. (It) not only reacts with carbon dioxide but also quite often with oxygen," explains Mayer- Hartl.
The MPI and Munich University team succeeded in recreating the protein through what they call "cellular chaperones."
The chaperones within the recreated cell work to ensure that the 16 constituent parts come together in an appropriate way, the institute explained in a statement.
The next goal of the team is to genetically modify Rubisco so that it bonds more often with carbon dioxide and less frequently with oxygen.
Meanwhile, researchers at the Leibniz Institute for Ocean Research at the University of Kiel published findings Wednesday that suggest that creatures such as starfish and sea lillies play a greater role in the carbon cycle of the seas than previously thought.
The Echinoderm family of animals use carbon present in the sea water in constructing their tough outer shells, and in fact lock up that carbon into the sea bed when they die, the study said.
The institute said that this group of animals was now especially endangered by the growing acidity of the oceans as a result of fossil fuel burning.
"We draw attention on the need for a major re-assessment of the contribution of benthic organisms such as echinoderms to the global marine carbonate cycle", said Mario Lebrato, lead author of the study.
