Uptake and efflux of inorganic carbon in Dunaliella salina

The apparent photosynthetic K_m (CO₂) of air-grown Dunaliella salina is 2 μM as measured both by the filtering centrifugation technique and by O₂ electrode. These cells are capable of accumulating inorganic carbon (C_inorg) up to 20 times its concentration in the medium. It is suggested that air-grown Dunaliella cells are able to concentrate CO₂ within the cell. Analysis of the efflux of C_inorg from cells previously loaded with H¹⁴CO₃^-demonstrated the existence of an internal pool which has an half-time of depletion of 2.5-7 min depending on the conditions of the experiment. This finding indicates that the internal C_inorg pool is not readily exchangeable with the external medium. Furthermore, the influence of the presence or absence of unlabelled C_inorg in the medium during the efflux experiment on the half-time observed indicate that efflux of C_inorg is not a simple diffusion process but is rather carrier-mediated.