Anaerobic Formation of d-Lactate and Partial Purification and Characterization of a Pyruvate Reductase from Chlamydomonas reinhardtii

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Abstract
D-Lactate accumulation in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii was dependent on anaerobic conditions. As much as 50% of the 14C after 2 minutes of photosynthetic 14CO2 fixation moved into d-lactate from sugar phosphates if the cells became anaerobic for short time periods. No lactate accumulated in the dark until the O2 concentration decreased to less than 0.1%. Lactate was determined to be of the d-configuration using stereospecific lactate dehydrogenases. d-Lactate produced anaerobically by algae grown on 5% CO2 was only slowly metabolized aerobically in the light or dark, and in the dark, only a trace of the lactate was excreted.