• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.35 no.3 s.99
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• pp.145-151
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• 2002

The effect of low pH on physiological changes was studied with the acidophilic green alga, Clamydomonas acidophila, UTCC 122. The growthrates (${\mu}$) were identical, $0.5{\sim}0.7\;day^{-1}$, at pH 3.7${\sim}$6.7 and no significantly different (ANOVA, p =0.134), showing cell volume reduced gradually as they were growing, whereas that at pH 2.7 was falling to zero and cell volume increased dramatically. Chlorophyll a concentration of the cultures incubated for one day was $191{\sim}255\;pg\;cell^{-1}$, after then it declined from $60{\sim}103\;pg\;cell^{-1}$ at pH 3.7${\sim}$6.7 except $210\;pg\;cell^{-1}$ at pH 2.7, which was directly related with cell volume. External carbonic anhydrase (CA) activity was varied from1.1 to$3.7{\times}10^{-4}\;E.U.\;mm^{-2}$, showing the gradualincrease during culture, except at 2.7 and pH 5.7. However there was not found any relationship among the pH gradient cultures. CA molecular mass of C. acidophila was 29 kBa, and concentration of that was identical in all cultures. The proteins of 41 kDa and 63 were not or very　faintly expressed in low pH cultures, in contrast that of 17 kDa more expressed. In this work, we found that C. acidophila could live optimally within a wide range of acidic pH, and 17 kDa of unidentified protein might be concerned with tolerating in low acid environment.