Abstract
Cell-wall synthesis in Chlorella vulgaris, an autospore-forming alga, was observed using the cell wall-specific fluorescent dye Fluostain I. The observation suggested two clearly distinguishable stages in cell-wall synthesis: moderate synthesis during the cell-growth process and rapid synthesis at the cell-division stage. We used electron microscopy to examine the structural changes that occurred with growth in the premature daughter cell wall during the cell-growth and cell-division phases. The cell began to synthesize a new daughter cell wall shortly after its release from the autosporangium. A very thin daughter cell wall, with a thickness of about 2 nm, was formed inside the mother cell wall and completely enveloped the outer surface of the plasma membrane of the cell. The daughter cell wall gradually increased in thickness from 2 to 3.8 nm. During the protoplast-division phase in the cell-division stage, the daughter cell wall expanded on the surface of the invaginating plasma membrane of the cleavage furrow, accompanied by active synthesis of the cell wall, which increased in thickness from 3.8 to 6.1 nm. The daughter cell matured into an autospore while completely enclosed by its own thickening (from 6.1 to 17 nm) wall. Finally, the released daughter cell was enclosed by its own cell wall after the mother cell wall burst. The daughter cell with mature wall thickness (17–21 nm) emerged as a small, but complete, autospore.
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Acknowledgments
We are grateful to Prof. H. Nozaki at the University of Tokyo and Prof. T. Kuroiwa and his colleagues at Rikkyo University for valuable discussions. We thank Prof. V. Zachleder at the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic for critical reading of the manuscript. We also thank Prof. A. Nakano at RIKEN (The Institute of Physical and Chemical Research) and Dr. C. Saito at Nara Institute of Science and Technology for providing Fluorescent Brightener 28. This work was supported, in part, by grants from the Kurita Water and Environment Foundation (S.K.) and BRAIN (S.K.).
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Yamamoto, M., Fujishita, M., Hirata, A. et al. Regeneration and maturation of daughter cell walls in the autospore-forming green alga Chlorella vulgaris (Chlorophyta, Trebouxiophyceae). J Plant Res 117, 257–264 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10265-004-0154-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10265-004-0154-6