Global Warming! Global Warming! You can tell who the real
scientists are by whether they approach a problem as doomsayers,
or whether they try to devise solutions to a problem. Global
warming just may have met its match. In research recently
completed at Emory University School of Medicine, scientists
have discovered a mutant enzyme that could enable plants to use
and convert carbon dioxide more quickly, effectively taking more
of that gas out of the atmosphere. The findings were published
online on January 19 and will appear in the February issue of
the journal Protein Engineering Design and Selection. Ichiro
Matsumura, PhD, assistant professor of biochemistry at Emory
University School of Medicine, is the senior author and
principal investigator. The lead author is research specialist
Monal R. Parikh. During photosynthesis, plants and some bacteria
convert sunlight and carbon dioxide into usable chemical energy.
Scientists have long known that this process relies on the
enzyme rubulose 1,5-bisphosphate carb