Rubisco is the primary carboxylase of the Calvin cycle, the most abundant enzyme in the biosphere, and one of the best-characterized enzymes. On the basis of correlations between Rubisco kinetic parameters, it is widely posited that constraints embedded in the catalytic mechanism enforce trade-offs between CO2 specificity, S C/O, and maximum carboxylation rate, k cat,C. However, the reasoning that established this view was based on data from ≈20 organisms. Here, we re-examine models of trade-offs in Rubisco catalysis using a data set from ≈300 organisms. Correlations between kinetic parameters are substantially attenuated in this larger data set, with the inverse relationship between k cat,C and S C/O being a key example. Nonetheless, measured kinetic parameters display extremely limited variation, consistent with a view of Rubisco as a highly constrained enzyme. More than 95% of k cat,C values are between 1 and 10 s–1, and no measured k cat,C exceeds 15 s–1. Similarly, S C/O varies by only 30% among Form I Rubiscos and <10% among C3 plant enzymes. Limited variation in S C/O forces a strong positive correlation between the catalytic efficiencies (k cat/K M) for carboxylation and oxygenation, consistent with a model of Rubisco catalysis in which increasing the rate of addition of CO2 to the enzyme–substrate complex requires an equal increase in the O2 addition rate. Altogether, these data suggest that Rubisco evolution is tightly constrained by the physicochemical limits of CO2/O2 discrimination.

Achieving efficient nonenzymatic replication of RNA is an important step toward the synthesis of self-replicating protocells that may mimic early forms of life. Despite recent progress, the nonenzymatic copying of templates containing mixed sequences remains slow and inefficient. Here we demonstrate that activating nucleotides with 2-aminoimidazole results in superior reaction kinetics and improved yields of primer extension reaction products. This new leaving group significantly accelerates monomer addition as well as trimer-assisted RNA primer extension, allowing efficient copying of a variety of short RNA templates with mixed sequences.

The nonenzymatic replication of RNA is a potential transitional stage between the prebiotic chemistry of nucleotide synthesis and the canonical RNA world in which RNA enzymes (ribozymes) catalyze replication of the RNA genomes of primordial cells. However, the plausibility of nonenzymatic RNA replication is undercut by the lack of a protocell-compatible chemical system capable of copying RNA templates containing all four nucleotides. We show that short 5′-activated oligonucleotides act as catalysts that accelerate primer extension, and allow for the one-pot copying of mixed sequence RNA templates. The fidelity of the primer extension products resulting from the sequential addition of activated monomers, when catalyzed by activated oligomers, is sufficient to sustain a genome long enough to encode active ribozymes. Finally, by immobilizing the primer and template on a bead and adding individual monomers in sequence, we synthesize a significant part of an active hammerhead ribozyme, forging a link between nonenzymatic polymerization and the RNA world.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.17756.001