CELL-CYCLE AND ACCUMULATION OF ASTAXANTHIN IN HAEMATOCOCCUS-LACUSTRIS (CHLOROPHYTA)

Synchronous release of ellipsoidal biflagellated zoospores from thick-walled akinetes of Haematococcus lacustris (Gir.) Rostaf. (UTEX 16) was induced. After being released, the zoospores divided rapidly at a rate that depended on the initial concentration of urea in the culture medium. Cells fused after approximately five doublings, and the DNA content of most cells doubled within 50 h. Spherical nonmotile palmella cells and aplanospores appeared after 100 h of incubation in media containing high (1.7 g.L(-1)) and low (0.85 g.L(-1)) urea concentrations. Thereafter, the number of nonmotile cells increased with time, whereas motile cell numbers decreased with time. Nonmotile cells continued to grow and divide by forming 4-32 aplanospores, for up to 200 h of incubation in the high-urea medium. The size of the nonmotile cells and the number of daughter cells formed within was inversely proportional to the growth rate of the cultures. Within the first 100 h of incubation, dry weight biomass of the zoospores increased from about 0.3 to 0.8 g.L(-1). In the following 180 h, dry weight biomass reached 1.7 g.L(-1) in the low urea medium and 2.5 g.L(-1) in the high-urea medium. The astaxanthin content of zoospores decreased with time, whereas there was a net accumulation of astaxanthin in the nonmotile cells. The specific rate of accumulation of astaxanthin in motile and nonmotile cells, however, was practically indentical.