Carbonic anhydrase and photosynthesis

During the past few years, the properties of a new enzyme, carbonic anhydrase, have been studied. This work is described in detail by Roughton (1934). Henriques (1928) had pointed out that the rate of evolution of CO2 from the lungs was much more rapid than the evolution of CO2 from a carbonic acid solution and concluded that: ( a ) there must be a catalyst present, or (b) the CO2 was carried in some form other than bicarbonate. Brinkman, Margaria, and Roughton (1933) confirmed the view of Faurholt (1924) “ that in the range pH 0-8 the equation d[CO2] / dt = k [H2CO 3 ] - k' [CO2], corresponding to the mechanism 1 mol CO2 + 1 mol H2O ⇄ 1 mol H2CO3, holds good”. The values of k and k' given by Brinkman, Margaria, and Roughton are compared with those of Faurholt in Table I.