Abstract
The sensitivities of Chlorella ellipsoidea to ${\gamma}$-ray from Cobalt-60 were determined by measuring the photosynthetic and respiratory activities and the changes in phosphate contents in various fractions of the irradited cells, which were further grown in a standard medium after irradiation, were compared to those of non-irradiated normal cells. The photosynthetic and repiratory activities of the cells were almost inversely proportional to the dose of ${\gamma}$-ray irradiated and the photosynthetic activity was more sensitive than the respiratory activity of the cells. The most sensitive to ${\gamma}$-ray was growth activity, followed by photosynthesis, exogenous and endogenous respirations of the cells in decreasing order. Chlorella cells were so resistant to ${\gamma}$-ray comapred with other organisms that about 280,000 r dose of ${\gamma}$-ray irradiaton was necessary to reduce as much as half the subsequent photosynthetic activity. When the irradiated algae were further cultured in a standard medium, the phosphate contents in the fraction of DNA, RNA and phosphoprotein decreased considerably compared with those of non-irradiated normal cells, while the phosphate contents in the fraction of polyphosphates increased than those of control. Therefore, it was deduced that ${\gamma}$-ray inhibited the synthesis of DNA from polyphosphates, that the growth of Chlorella cells were consequently retarded.