Strain, Culture Conditions, and Growth Monitoring
Chlamydomonas reinhardtii strain CC-124 (mt- [137C]) was generously obtained from laboratory of Dr. Iftach Yacoby, Tel Aviv University, which was originally purchased from Chlamydomonas Resource Center, University of Minnesota. The seed cultures were grown at 23 °C on liquid Tris-acetate-phosphate (TAP) medium (Harris, 1989) in flasks capped with a silicone sponge, and were shaken at 100 rpm under continuous illumination of 150 μmol photons m−2s−1 at 16:8 h of light:dark period, and ambient CO2 concentrations. Cell growth was determined by optical density measurements at 750 nm (OD750) using a NanoDrop 2000c spectrophotometer (Thermo Scientific, Wilmington, DE). Cell count was performed with a BD FACSCalibur flow cytometer (Breda, Netherlands). Cultures were kept in the log phase with OD750 between 0.1 – 0.3 which is corresponding to a cell number of 3 – 9 × 105cells*mL-1 by dilution every 48 h to minimize self-shading.