A novel express bioassay for detecting toxic substances in water by recording rhodopsin-mediated photoelectric responses in Chlamydomonas cell suspensions.

The influence of Cu2+, Zn2+, Cd2+, Pb2+ and formaldehyde on rhodopsin-mediated photoelectric responses in the green flagellate Chlamydomonas reinhardtii was investigated using three modifications of a recently developed population method for electrical recording (in nonoriented, phototactically preoriented (PO) and gravitactically preoriented cell suspensions). The addition of the heavy metal ions at concentrations several times lower than those known to affect swimming velocity and other physiological parameters in photosynthetic flagellates led to a rapid (one to several minutes) inhibition of the responses. Formaldehyde induced a significant temporary increase in the gravi-orientation of the cells simultaneously with an inhibition of their photoelectric cascade, photo-orientation and motility.

delta psi-mediated signalling in the bacteriorhodopsin-dependent photoresponse.

It has been shown previously that the proton-pumping activity of bacteriorhodopsin from Halobacterium salinarium can transmit an attractant signal to the bacterial flagella upon an increase in light intensity over a wide range of wavelengths. Here, we studied the effect of blue light on phototactic responses by the mutant strain Pho8l-B4, which lacks both sensory rhodopsins but has the ability to synthesize bacteriorhodopsin. Under conditions in which bacteriorhodopsin was largely accumulated as the M412 bacteriorhodopsin photocycle intermediate, halobacterial cells responded to blue light as a repellent.