Photosynthesis-deficient Mutants of Chlamydomonas reinhardii with Associated Light-sensitive Phenotypes

Abstract

A series of non-photoautotrophic mutants of Chlamydomonas reinhardii was isolated by replica-plating mutagenized cells which had been grown in the dark. Many of these acetate-requiring mutants are photosensitive, showing poor growth on acetate medium in the light, but normal growth in the dark. Biochemical characterization showed that the photosensitive mutants all had specific lesions in photosynthesis or photosynthetic pigment accumulation. The acetate-requiring mutants which were not photosensitive were all able to fix CO₂. Among the light-sensitive mutants are 15 which show uniparental inheritance. These include six with specific lesions in photosystem II and one with an altered large subunit of ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase. Since these two classes of uniparental mutants have been rare or not previously reported, it seems likely that photosensitivity is an important factor which limited their detection in previous mutant isolation experiments.