The carboxylation kinetic (stable carbon) isotope effect was measured for purified D-ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylases/oxygenases (Rubiscos) with aqueous CO 2 as substrate by monitoring Rayleigh fractionation using membrane inlet mass spectrometry. This resulted in discriminations (⌬) of 27.4 ؎ 0.9‰ for wild-type tobacco Rubisco, 22.2 ؎ 2.1‰ for Rhodospirillum rubrum Rubisco, and 11.2 ؎ 1.6‰ for a large subunit mutant of tobacco Rubisco in which Leu 335 is mutated to valine (L335V). These ⌬ values are consistent with the photosynthetic discrimination determined for wild-type tobacco and transplastomic tobacco lines that exclusively produce R. rubrum or L335V Rubisco. The ⌬ values are indicative of the potential evolutionary variability of ⌬ values for a range of Rubiscos from different species: Form I Rubisco from higher plants; prokaryotic Rubiscos, including Form II; and the L335V mutant. We explore the implications of these ⌬ values for the Rubisco catalytic mechanism and suggest that Rubiscos that are associated with a lower ⌬ value have a less product-like carboxylation transition state and/or allow a decarboxylation step that evolution has excluded in higher plants.