Fluorescence kinetics and low temperature fluorescence studies indicate an impact on PSI light harvesting as well as electron transfer (Moseley et al. 2002). Iron-limited cultures (0.2-μM Fe) are visibly chlorotic owing to the programmed destruction of reaction centers and LHCIs YH25448 mw (Moseley et al. 2002; Naumann et al. 2005). The involvement of a di-iron aerobic cyclase encoded by CHL27 in chlorophyll biosynthesis may also contribute to chlorosis (Tottey et al. 2003). Finally, in the iron-excess situation

(200-μM Fe), the cells are phenotypically indistinguishable from iron-replete cells at normal light intensities but are sensitive to excess excitation energy (>500 μmol photons m−2 s−1) (Long and Merchant 2008). We investigated the iron nutrition response of Chlamydomonas in acetate versus minimal medium to distinguish the impact of deficiency on bioenergetic pathways. There were striking selleck inhibitor Selleck Savolitinib differences in the response of the photosynthetic apparatus

depending on the trophic status of the cultures. Iron-limited, photoheterotrophically grown cells maintained high growth rates by apparently suppressing photosynthesis while maintaining relatively high rates of respiration. This contrasts with autotrophic cells, which had efficient photosynthetic systems throughout the spectrum of iron nutritional status, but lost overall photosynthetic capacity at the onset of iron limitation. Materials and methods Strains and growth Chlamydomonas reinhardtii strain 4A+ (137c background, courtesy

of J.-D. Rochaix, University of Geneva) was used in this study. Starter cultures were maintained either photo-heterotrophically in standard Tris–acetate–phosphate (TAP) medium or in autotrophic medium lacking acetate (TP) at 24°C at a light intensity of 95 μmol photons m−2 s−1 and constant shaking (Harris 2009). For TP medium, acetic acid was omitted from the medium and the pH was adjusted to 7.4 with HCl. Autotrophic cells were also bubbled with sterile air. Media containing Suplatast tosilate various amounts of iron were prepared and inoculated as in (Terauchi et al. 2009). No significant differences in chemical speciation at equilibrium in TP vs. TAP or in TP versus HSM (which is commonly used in other studies) were predicted using Visual Minteq software (http://​www.​lwr.​kth.​se/​English/​OurSoftware/​vminteq). Cells were collected in mid-exponential phase (1–2 × 106 cells per ml) for all analyses. Measurement of iron content Samples were prepared as described by Petroutsos et al. (2009) and iron content was determined by inductively coupled plasma-mass spectroscopy (Agilent 7500 ICP-MS, detection limit 0.01 ppb) using the standard addition method in Helium mode.