微生物炭酸固定の多様性とその利用

概要

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There are many species of autotrophs on the earth, including plants, archea and eubacteria, which fix carbon dioxide via various different pathways and produce abundant amount of organic compounds supporting the lives of heterotrophic organisms. This article deals with the variety of autotrophic organisms and the diversity of carbon dioxide fixation pathways by those autotrophs. Many species of novel microorganisms were isolated, chemolithoautotrophic bacteria using gaseous hydrogen as an energy source and cyanobacteria under thermophilic condition. One of them, an extremely thermophilic hydrogen bacterium, was first proved to function a new fixation pathway, reductive TCA cycle, as an aerobic bacterium. The key enzymes of Calvin cycle, ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (RubisCO) from both a marine hydrogen bacterium and a thermophilic cyanobacterium were revealed to have characteristic features, L_2 form and thermostable RubisCO, respectively. The possibility of utilizing the ability of microorganisms to fix carbon dioxide, rapid production of organic materials and a tool for improving the RubisCO genes of plants, is also discussed.
社団法人日本生物工学会の論文
1995-11-25