ArticleBMC evolutionary biology2007
Widespread positive selection in the photosynthetic Rubisco enzyme.
Article in BMC evolutionary biology, 2007. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 93 papers.
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93 citing papers in PubMed, 202 citations in OpenAlex.
- Machine learning-assisted directed evolution of plant Rubisco.Science advances · 2026Article
- Harnessing natural variation for photosynthetic improvement in next-generation crop breeding.Journal of integrative plant biology · 2026Review
- Comparative chloroplast genomics of 22 species of Sida (Malvaceae) reveals structural conservation, adaptive evolution, and preliminary phylogenetic structure.BMC plant biology · 2026Article
- Comparative plastome analyses reveal life-form-associated selection signatures in Orchidaceae.BMC plant biology · 2026Article
- The Complete Chloroplast Genome ofGenes · 2025Article
- The complete plastome of the Antarctic moss Andreaea regularis (Andreaeaceae) and its comparative analyses within Bryophyta.BMC genomics · 2025Article
- Plastomic studies inform the mechanisms of edaphic adaptation in North American species in the tribe Thelypodieae (Brassicaceae).American journal of botany · 2025Article
- Comparative Chloroplast Genomics ofInternational journal of molecular sciences · 2025Article
- Carboxylation and Oxygenation Kinetics and Large Subunit (rbcL) DNA Sequences for Rubisco From Two Ecotypes of Plantago lanceolata L. That Are Native to Sites Differing in Atmospheric COPlant, cell & environment · 2025Article
- Comparative chloroplast genome analyses ofFrontiers in plant science · 2025Article
- Comparative chloroplast genomes and phylogenetic analysis of theFrontiers in plant science · 2025Article
- Widespread adaptive evolution in angiosperm photosystems provides insight into the evolution of photosystem II repair.The Plant cell · 2024Article
- Species-wide inventory ofProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024Article
- Phylogenomics and adaptive evolution of hydrophytic umbellifers (tribe Oenantheae, Apioideae) revealed from chloroplast genomes.BMC plant biology · 2024Article
- The adaptive evolution of Quercus section Ilex using the chloroplast genomes of two threatened species.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- New insights on the phylogeny, evolutionary history, and ecological adaptation mechanism in cycle-cup oaks based on chloroplast genomes.Ecology and evolution · 2024Article
- Unprecedented variation pattern of plastid genomes and the potential role in adaptive evolution in Poales.BMC biology · 2024Article
- Rubisco is evolving for improved catalytic efficiency and COProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024Article
- Equisetum praealtum and E. hyemale have abundant Rubisco with a high catalytic turnover rate and low COJournal of plant research · 2024Article
- Chloroplast genome structure analysis ofFrontiers in plant science · 2024Article
33 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundRubisco enzyme catalyzes the first step in net photosynthetic CO2 assimilation and photorespiratory carbon oxidation and is responsible for almost all carbon fixation on Earth. The large subunit of Rubisco is encoded by the chloroplast rbcL gene, which is widely used for reconstruction of plant phylogenies due to its conservative nature. Plant systematicists have mainly used rbcL paying little attention to its function, and the question whether it evolves under Darwinian selection has received little attention. The purpose of our study was to evaluate how common is positive selection in Rubisco among the phototrophs and where in the Rubisco structure does positive selection occur.
resultsWe searched for positive selection in rbcL sequences from over 3000 species representing all lineages of green plants and some lineages of other phototrophs, such as brown and red algae, diatoms, euglenids and cyanobacteria. Our molecular phylogenetic analysis found the presence of positive selection in rbcL of most analyzed land plants, but not in algae and cyanobacteria. The mapping of the positively selected residues on the Rubisco tertiary structure revealed that they are located in regions important for dimer-dimer, intradimer, large subunit-small subunit and Rubisco-Rubisco activase interactions, and that some of the positively selected residues are close to the active site.
conclusionOur results demonstrate that despite its conservative nature, Rubisco evolves under positive selection in most lineages of land plants, and after billions of years of evolution Darwinian selection still fine-tunes its performance. Widespread positive selection in rbcL has to be taken into account when this gene is used for phylogenetic reconstructions.
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