Abstract
Vanadium, although essential for growth and chlorophyll formation in unicellular green algae, reveals toxic influences on cell division of Chlorella pyrenoidosa, these disturbances arising in the same range of V-concentrations as the known positive effects of the trace metal. In permanent light, as documented by cell volume statistics, vanadium (4·10-7 g-at/l as NH4VO3) causes a significant shift of the distribution maxima to higher values of the algal cell volume, the shift having its optimum at 10-5 g-at V/l. It is documented in pH-constant liquid culture that this effect is not due to a change of pH in the nutrient medium.
Under synchronous conditions of algal cultivation (16: 8 h), vanadium causes a total arrest of cell division after 3 periods; this stop lasts for the next 3 cycles. Afterwards, asynchronous divisions newly occur and lead to generally larger autospores. Staining of algal cell nuclei revealed an inhibitory V-effect on nuclear division, yielding giant nuclei with multiple sets of chromosomes, and thereby limiting cell division. Under these conditions, Chlorella pyrenoidosa is not synchronizable in presence of vanadium.
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Meisch, HU., Benzschawel, H. The role of vanadium in green plants. Arch. Microbiol. 116, 91–95 (1978). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00408738
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00408738