Analysis of Unique Motility of the Unicellular Green Alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii at Low Temperatures down to −8 °C

Abstract

Previous studies of motility at low temperatures in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii have been conducted at temperatures of up to 15 °C. In this study, we report that C. reinhardtii exhibits unique motility at a lower temperature range (−8.7 to 1.7 °C). Cell motility was recorded using four low-cost, easy-to-operate observation systems. Fast Fourier transform (FFT) analysis at room temperature (20–27 °C) showed that the main peak frequency of oscillations ranged from 44 to 61 Hz, which is consistent with the 60 Hz beat frequency of flagella. At lower temperatures, swimming velocity decreased with decreasing temperature. The results of the FFT analysis showed that the major peak shifted to the 5–18 Hz range, suggesting that the flagellar beat frequency was decreasing. The FFT spectra had distinct major peaks in both temperature ranges, indicating that the oscillations were regular. This was not affected by the wavelength of the observation light source (white, red, green or blue LED) or the environmental spatial scale of the cells. In contrast, cells in a highly viscous (3.5 mPa·s) culture at room temperature showed numerous peaks in the 0–200 Hz frequency band, indicating that the oscillations were irregular. These findings contribute to a better understanding of motility under lower-temperature conditions in C. reinhardtii.