Fermentative Metabolism of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii

Abstract
Evidence is presented to substantiate a chloroplastic respiratory pathway in the green alga, Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, whereby reducing equivalents generated during the degradation of starch enter the thylakoidal chain at the plastoquinone site catalyzed by NADH-plastoquinone reductase. In this formulation, the reduced plastoquinone is oxidized either by the photoevolution (photosystem I) of H2 under anaerobic conditions or by O2 during dark respiration.