<p>Ribulose bisphosphate carboxylase (RuBisCO) [<cite idref="PUB00000034"/>, <cite idref="PUB00004038"/>] catalyses the initial step in Calvin's reductive pentose phosphate cycle in plants as well as purple and green bacteria. It consists of a large catalytic unit and a small subunit of undetermined function. In plants, the large subunit is coded by the chloroplastic genome while the small subunit is encoded in the nuclear genome. Molecular activation of RuBisCO by CO<sub>2</sub> involves the formation of a carbamate with the epsilon-amino group of a conserved lysine residue. This carbamate is stabilised by a magnesium ion. One of the ligands of the magnesium ion is an aspartic acid residue close to the active site lysine [<cite idref="PUB00015291"/>].</p><p>This entry represents the active site [<cite idref="PUB00015291"/>] which includes both the active site residue and the metal ligand, and which is specific to RuBisCO large chains.</p>