Uptake and accumulation of inorganic carbon in Ectocarpus siliculosus and its relation to blue light stimulation of photosynthesis

Abstract

The stimulating effect of blue light on the carbon-concentrating mechanism of Ectocarpus siliculosus was investigated by measuring the intracellular pools of inorganic carbon (Ci) in red light (low photosynthetic rates) and in red light plus blue light (high photosynthetic rates). Ci accumulated in red light to about twice the levels found in the presence of blue light, but the permeability of the cell membranes for Ci, measured as the rate of influx of tracer carbon, was similar in both light conditions. This was also true after the seawater pH was adjusted to pH 9·5, when bicarbonate should be the only inorganic carbon species to enter the cells. Activation of photosynthesis after prolonged red light caused the accumulated Ci to decline to levels similar to those observed in blue light. The time course of this decline was rapid and coincided with the time course that was expected for the emptying of a carbon pool whose existence had been demonstrated earlier in measurements of photosynthetic oxygen evolution in the absence of external carbon. The accumulation of Ci in red light required active photosynthesis, but it also occurred in the presence of inhibitors of carbonic anhydrase activity. It is suggested that blue light mobilizes the Ci pool by causing changes in intracellular pH and that the size of the pool depends on the activity of metabolic CO₂-sink activities that are also under the control of blue light.