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Bioenergetic and metabolic processes for the survival of sulfur-deprived Dunaliella salina (Chlorophyta)

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Abstract

The work addressed bioenergetic, metabolic and physiological responses ofthe green alga Dunaliella salina to sulfur (S)-deprivation. Photo-autotrophically grown cells were suspended in a medium in which thesulfates were replaced by chloride salts. Growth characteristics, pigmentcontent, rates of photosynthesis and respiration, as well as endogenoussubstrate (starch and protein) accumulation were monitored as a functionof time under S-deprivation. Lack of S from the growth medium had adifferential effect on photosynthesis and respiration. The rate oflight-saturated photosynthesis declined semi-exponentially with time,whereas the activity of respiration remained fairly constant over a periodof up to 100 h in S-deprived medium. Cell division and `packed cell volumeincrease' declined in tandem with the decline in the rate of photosynthesis. There was gradual loss of chlorophyll from the cells and a concomitant lossof photochemically competent system-II reaction centers, whereas theconcentration of system-I remained largely unaffected under S-deprivation. Cells altered the partition of photosynthate between starch and protein sothat control steady-state starch/protein ratios in the light (0.1: 1, w: w)gradually increased up to about 1: 1 as a function of S-deprivation. SealedDunaliella salina cultures, in which the capacity of photosynthesisdeclined to levels lower than that of respiration, consumed dissolvedoxygen and became anaerobic in the light. These cultures, however, did notactivate the reversible `hydrogenase pathway' and did not produceH2 gas. Instead, under extended S-deprivation, cells maintained alow-level cycling of O2 and CO2 between photosynthesis andrespiration that resulted in no net exchange of gases. Such low-level cyclingof photosynthesis and respiration was sufficient to ensure the generation ofATP needed for survival of the organism under protracted S-deprivationconditions.

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Cao, H., Zhang, L. & Melis, A. Bioenergetic and metabolic processes for the survival of sulfur-deprived Dunaliella salina (Chlorophyta). Journal of Applied Phycology 13, 25–34 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1008131412909

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