Culture Conditions and the Development of the Photosynthetic Mechanism

1. Chlorella pyrenoidosa has been grown in a continuous-culture apparatus under various light intensities provided by incandescent lamps, other conditions of culture being maintained constant. The harvested cells were analyzed for cell number, dry weight, nitrogen, and chlorophyll per unit cell volume. 2. Cell nitrogen and cell volume are parallel measures of cellular material over the range of light intensity studied. 3. The dry weight per cell volume increases slowly with light intensity, showing about a 20 per cent variation. 4. Chlorophyll concentration and cell number show a concomitant decrease with increasing light intensity, varying in such a way that there are always about the same number of chlorophyll molecules per cell. It is considered that this phenomenon has bearing on the interpretation of data which has led to the theory of the photosynthetic unit.