Relation between pigment content and photosynthetic characteristics in a blue-green algae

Abstract

1. The blue-green alga Anacystis nidulans was cultured under steady state conditions at 25 and 39 degrees C. and under several different light intensities to give five different types of cells. 2. Cells were submitted to pigment analysis based upon acetone extracts and aqueous extracts obtained by sonic disintegration. The different cell types show a threefold range of chlorophyll content and a fourfold range of phycocyanin content with only minor changes in the chlorophyll/phycocyanin ratio. Cells of highest pigment content were estimated to contain 2.8 per cent chlorophyll a and 24 per cent phycocyanin, the latter on a total chromoproteid basis. 3. Light intensity curves of photosynthesis were obtained for each of the cell types at 25 and at 39 degrees C. The slopes of the light-limited regions of the curves are approximately linear functions of chlorophyll and phycocyanin contents. Maximum light-saturated rates of photosynthesis at 25 and 39 degrees show no simple relation to pigment content.