The CO2-fixing enzyme of Calvin cycle ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate-carboxylase/oxygenase has been isolated from a halophilic bacterium, Haloferax mediterranei grown heterotrophically. A homogeneous preparation was obtained from sonicated extract of the cells by three steps, resulting in a specific activity of 52 nmol.min-1.mg protein-1. The physicochemical and catalytic properties of the enzyme were studied. The halobacterial ribulose-bisphosphate carboxylase is an oligomer of 54-kDa and 14-kDa subunits as detected by SDS/PAGE. By sucrose-density-gradient centrifugation, the molecular mass of the enzyme was estimated as approximately 500 kDa indicating a hexadecameric nature. No evidence for an additional form of the enzyme devoid of small subunits was obtained. The enzyme required Mg2+ for activity, KCl for activity and stability, and an optimal pH of 7.8. In contrast to many halophilic proteins, ribulose-bisphosphate carboxylase from H. mediterranei is not an acidic protein. From the comparison of amino acid composition of halobacterial enzyme with its counterparts from a few eukaryotic and eubacterial sources, the S delta Q values showed that these proteins share some compositional similarities.