Summary
A methylammonium-resistant mutant, named hereafter strain 2170 (ma-1), was isolated for the first time from a eukaryotic phototrophic organism. Mutant 2170 from Chlamydomonas reinhardtii carries a single mendelian mutation which results in a decreased rate of uptake of both ammonium and methylammonium without being affected either in uptake of nitrate or nitrite or any of the tested enzyme activities related to ammonium assimilation. Mutant cells could not use methylammonium as nitrogen source nor excrete ammonium into the medium but they had derepressed nitrate and nitrite reductases when growing in the presence of ammonium. Mutant 2170 also exhibited a diminished methylammonium transport rate in comparison with the wild-type cells. We conclude that mutant 2170 is affected in a transport system responsible for the entrance of both ammonium and methylammonium into the cells.
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Abbreviations
- CHES:
-
2-(N-Cyclohexylamino)ethanesulphonic acid
- MOPS:
-
3(N-morpholine)propanesulphonic acid
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Communicated by J. Lengeler
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Franco, A.R., Cárdenas, J. & Fernández, E. A mutant of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii altered in the transport of ammonium and methylammonium. Mol Gen Genet 206, 414–418 (1987). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00428880
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00428880