Xanthigen promoted weight loss, reduced body and liver fat content, and improved liver function tests in obese non-diabetic women. Xanthigen and Fucoxanthin also increased REE. This product may be considered a promising food supplement in the management of obesity.

In green unicellular algae, several polypep-

An intracellular carbonic anhydrase (CA; EC 4.2.1 .I) was purified to homogeneity from a mutant strain of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii (CW 92) lacking a cell wall. lntact cells were washed to remove periplasmic CA and were lysed and fractionated into soluble and membrane fractions by sedimentation. All of the CA activity sedimented with the membrane fraction and was dissociated by treatment with a buffer containing 200 mM KCI. Solubilized proteins were fractionated by ammonium sulfate precipitation, anionic exchange chromatography, and hydrophobic interaction chromatography. l h e resulting fraction had a specific activity of 1260 WilburAnderson units/mg protein and was inhibited by acetazolamide (50% inhibition concentration, 12 nM). Final purification was accomplished by the specific absorption of the enzyme to a Centricon-10 microconcentrator filter. A single, 29.5-kD polypeptide was eluted from the filter with sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis sample buffer, and a 1.5 M ammonium sulfate eluate contained CA activity. I n comparison with human CA isoenzyme II, the N-terminal and internal amino acid sequences from the 29.5-kD polypeptide were 40% identical with the N-terminal region and 67% identical with an internal conserved region. Based on this evidence, we postulate that the 29.5-kD polypeptide i s an internal CA in C. reinhardtii and that the enzyme is closely related to the a-type CAs observed i n animal species.

The growth characteristics, biochemical composition and ultrastructure of a novel starchless mutant of Chlorella pyrenoidosa, designated as STL-PI, are compared to the same characteristics of its parental strain, C. pyrenoidosa 82T. The STL-PI mutant had a 22 ± 5% higher growth rate, and 24.5 ± 4.2% more protein than the parental strain, 82T. Furthermore, the STL-PI mutant accumulated 20.4% more polyunsaturated fatty acids and 18% less saturated fatty acids than the parental 82T. When the parental 82T was cultured in a nitrogen-free media, their starch content increased from 6.8 ± 2.8% to 22.5 ± 3.1%. In contrast, the STL-PI mutant produced no starch, regardless of the growth conditions. Instead, the mutant cells responded to nitrogen limitation by further increasing their lipid content from 25.2 ± 1.2% to 38.0 ± 2.3% per dry weight. Transmission electron micrography revealed that nitrogen limitation typically stimulates the formation of starch granules in the chloroplast of 82T cells. Yet no starch granules were observed in the STL-PI cells. Instead, only the formation of large lipid globules was observed in the mutant cells. These results demonstrate that the starchless mutant STL-P1 possesses novel physiological and phytochemical properties distinct from the 82T cells: their cells were deficient in starch synthesis and showed higher growth rates and productivity than 82T cells.

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