Phototaxis Assay for Chlamydomonas reinhardtii

Phototaxis is a behavior in which organisms move toward or away from the light source (positive or negative phototaxis, respectively). It is crucial for phototrophic microorganisms to inhabit under proper light conditions for phototaxis. The unicellular green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii rapidly changes its swimming direction upon light illumination, and thus is a nice model organism for phototaxis research. Here we show two methods to assay Chlamydomonas phototaxis; one is a quick, easy and qualitative analysis, so-called the dish assay; and the other is a quantitative single-cell analysis.