The Relationship between Inorganic Nitrogen Metabolism and Proline Accumulation in Osmoregulatory Responses of Two Euryhaline Microalgae

Abstract

Chlorella autotrophica, a euryhaline marine alga, and Stichococcus bacillaris, a salt-tolerant soil alga, grow in the presence of methionine sulfoximine (MSX), an inhibitor of glutamine synthetase, by maintaining high levels of NADPH-glutamate dehydrogenase. Nitrate reductase showed no change in MSX-adapted cells. For both species, MSX-adapted cells retained their capacity to accumulate proline in response to salinity, and in S. bacillaris no major shift was observed in the presence of MSX toward the accumulation of sorbitol. Following transfer from 33 to 150% artificial seawater (ASW), both algae exhibited increases in organic solute levels without a lag. Within 6 h of this sudden increase in salinity, the levels of proline in C. autotrophica and of proline and sorbitol in S. bacillaris were similar to those found in steady state 150% ASW cultures. Following transfer from 33 to 150% ASW, S. bacillaris continued [(14)C] bicarbonate photoassimilation at a normal rate and maintained active enzymes of nitrogen assimilation. The incorporation of [(14)C]phenylalanine into proteins was inhibited for about 30 minutes in MSX-free cells and 90 minutes in MSX-adapted cells following transfer from 33 to 150% ASW; the recovery after these lag periods was almost complete.