Regulation of carbonic-anhydrase activity, inorganic-carbon uptake and photosynthetic biomass yield inChlamydomonas reinhardtii.
The regulation of carbonic anhydrase by environmental conditions was determined forChlamydomonas reinhardtii. The depression of carbonic anhydrase in air-grown cells was pH-dependent. Growth of cells on air at acid pH, corresponding to 10 μm CO2 in solution, resulted in complete repression of carbonic-anhydrase activity. At pH 6.9, increasing the CO2 concentration to 0.15% (v/v) in the gas phase, corresponding to 11 μM in solution, was sufficient to completely repress carbonic-anhydrase activity. Photosynthesis and intracellular inorganic carbon were measured in air-grown and high-CO2-grown cells using a silicone-oil centrifugation technique. With carbonic anhydrase repressed cells limited inorganic-carbon accumulation resulted from non-specific binding of CO2. With air-grown cells, inorganic-carbon uptake at acid pH, i.e. 5.5, was linear up to 0.5 mM external inorganic-carbon concentration whereas at alkaline pH, i.e. 7.5, the accumulation ratio decreased with increase in external inorganic-carbon concentration. It is suggested that in air-grown cells at acid pH, CO2 is the inorganic carbon species that crosses the plasmalemma. The conversion of CO2 to HCO 3 (-) by carbonic anhydrase in the cytosol results in inorganic-carbon accumulation and maintains the diffusion gradient for carbon dioxide across the cell boundary. However, this mechanism will not account for energy-dependent accumulation of inorganic carbon when there is little difference in pH between the exterior and cytosol.
Plant and Microbial Metabolism Research Group, School of Biological Sciences, University College of Swansea, Singleton Park, SA2 8PP, Swansea, UK.
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Patel
M J
MJ
Merrett