The impulse response ofChlamydomonas reinhardii in nitrite-limited chemostat culture

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Abstract
This article presents a clear experimental determination of the behavior of nutrient uptake rate, mean cell nutrient content, and specific growth rate following the injection of pulses of additional limiting nutrient into a chemostat culture of Chlamydomonas reinhardii. The uptake rate per cell is a hyperbolic function of external nutrient concentration. The specific growth rate is related to the mean cell nutrient content by a hysteresis loop. The data obtained is used to test the performance of the Caperon–Droop mean cell quota model. It is demonstrated that this model cannot be used under severe transient conditions, even when modified by the introduction of a discrete time delay, a simple memory function, or time‐dependent intracellular nutrient processing.