EFFECTS OF GLUCOSE ON THE PROCESS OF CHLOROPLAST DEVELOPMENT IN CHLORELLA PROTOTHECOIDES

By growing Chlorella protothecoides in a medium rich in glucoseand poor in nitrogen source (urea), the entirely chlorophyll-lesscells showing no discernible plastid structure and containingonly little RNA and protein were obtained. These cells, whichwere called "glucosebleached" cells, turned green after a certainlag period, when they were incubated, in the light, in a mediumcontaining the nitrogen source and basal mineral nutrients butwithout glucose. As has been shown in previous studies, thisgreening process involves two consecutive steps : a light-independentphase, in which RNA plays an essential role, and a light-requiringphase, in which the chlorophyll formation and full organizationof chloroplast take place accompanied by the formation of acertain species of protein ("alkali-stable" protein). The wholeprocess of greening was found to be profoundly suppressed byaddition of glucose, the degree of suppression being determinedby the relative concentrations of glucose and the nitrogen source.The primary act of glucose was manifest in the repression ofsyntheses of RNA, and of the species of protein mentioned above,which participate in, or causally related to, the first andsecond phases, respectively, in the greening process. ¹ This paper was read at the Symposium on Extranuclear Self-reproducingSystems held by the Botanical Society of Japan in October, 1964