Date: Wed, 10 Sep 1997 11:23:28 -0500 From: lasseter@chemvx.chem.tamu.edu (Lasseter Benjamin) To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com Message-Id: <aabcdefg3474$foo@default> Subject: Re: CO2 for CPs ?
>I was just wondering if CO2 benefits CPs at all ? From what we
>have learnt in Science, plants given more CO2 actually grow faster due to
>more photosynthesis or something, but with CPs, will it be the same ?
>If CPs really do benefit with CO2, I suspect that some dry ice with warm
>water beside the plants will make the plants very happy, since dry ice is
>basically very compressed CO2.
Perhaps this would work, but not necessarily. One of the main enzymes
involved with photosynthesis,
**Ribulose-bis-phosphate-carboxylase-oxygenase**, or RUBISCO, has a
tremendously strong affinity for CO2 and a somewhat weaker one for oxygen.
If CO2 levels get too much higher than normal atmospheric levels, then
photosynthesis comes to a crashing halt when RUBISCO is saturated with CO2
and cannot proceed on to the binding of oxygen.
If I misapprehend this concept, perhaps someone could correct me.
It is not really my area of expertise, just something I picked up in
biochemistry classes.
Sincerely,
Benjamin F. Lasseter
Jennifer Kimmel
Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics
Texas A&M University
College Station, TX 77843
(409) 862-2264
jen@twister.tamu.edu
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