Measurements of photorespiration in some microscopic algae

The rate of photorespiration in three green algae and four blue-green algae was determined by the measurement of the rate of loss of photosynthetically fixed (14)CO2 in light in CO2-free air at 25°. In all algae studied, CO2 evolution in light was considerably less than that in the dark, except for Chlamydomonas reinhardii which released slightly more CO2 in the light. Raising the temperature to 35° had little effect on the ratio of light to dark (14)CO2 release. Blue-green algae showed the lowest photorespiration rate of the algae studied.