Cell-wall abnormalities of a Chlamydomonas reinhardtii mutant strain under suboptimal growth conditions

Sporangia were accumulated in autotrophically and mixotrophically growing cultures of the Chlamydomonas reinhardtii mutant strain 'ls' entering the stationary phase. Such an accumulation of sporangia was never observed in stationary-phase cultures of wildtype strains. Sporangia harvested from stationary-phase cultures of the mutant strain 'ls' released their zoospores after being resuspended in fresh culture medium. Liberation of zoospores was also observed during fixation of these sporangia with glutaraldehyde and OsO4. Release of zoospores during fixation was prevented by pretreatment with 3 mol·l(-1) LiCl. Ultrastructural analyses of these LiCl-pretreated sporangia revealed that they contained abnormal sporangial walls: sporangia containing sporangia and sporangia surrounded by additional multilayered cell walls have been observed. Similar abnormal cell-wall structures were found in sporangia accumulated at the end of the dark period, when the mutant strain 'ls' was grown photoautotrophically under a 12 h light-12 h dark regime with suboptimal aeration. When grown under optimal conditions, this particular mutant did not show any abnormal wall structures.