Abstract:
Spirulina platensis C1 is a cyanobacterium that has helical trichome. The morphological transformation to straight trichome of this strain has been observed. To determine the environmental factors which enhance this transformation, effect of nutrient concentration, high temperature and high light intensity were studied. The results showed that these factors cannot enhance the morphological transformation to straight trichome under the study conditions. However, it was found that the factors mentioned have an effect on the helicity of cell. In the study of UV irradiation, the condition cannot induce the mutation thus the straight form was not found. Furthermore, the straight forms were found when the cultures were grown under prolonged static condition at room temperature. It could be proposed that the morphological change from helical to straight trichome is spontaneous mutation. No difference in growth rate, biochemical compositions and photosynthetic characteristic between the helix and the straight trichomes was found. The total protein extracted from both forms was separated by Two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2D-electrophoresis). The protein profiles of both forms were found to be similar. One hundred forty eight and one hundred fifty protein spots were detected in helix and straight form, respectively. Sixty seven protein spots have different spot density and 2 unique protein spots were detected only in the straight form. When the spot density of the 67 proteins were compared, it was found that 15 spots and 52 spots of the 67 spots in the helical form have higher and lower spot density, respectively, than that of the straight form. Therefore, the 69 protein spots probably related to the morphological transformation of trichome.