Cell Cycle Arrest by Supraoptimal Temperature in the Alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii

Temperature is one of the key factors affecting growth and division of algal cells. High temperature inhibits the cell cycle in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. At 39 °C, nuclear and cellular divisions in synchronized cultures were blocked completely, while DNA replication was partly affected. In contrast, growth (cell volume, dry matter, total protein, and RNA) remained unaffected, and starch accumulated at very high levels. The cell cycle arrest could be removed by transfer to 30 °C, but a full recovery occurred only in cultures cultivated up to 14 h at 39 °C. Thereafter, individual cell cycle processes began to be affected in sequence; daughter cell release, cell division, and DNA replication. Cell cycle arrest was accompanied by high mitotic cyclin-dependent kinase activity that decreased after completion of nuclear and cellular division following transfer to 30 °C. Cell cycle arrest was, therefore, not caused by a lack of cyclin-dependent kinase activity but rather a blockage in downstream processes.