The anaerobic starch breakdown into end-products in the green alg Chiamydomonas reinhardtii F-60 has been investigted in the dark and in the light. The effects of 343,4-dichlorophenyl)-1,1-dimethylurea (DCMU) and carbonyl cyanide-p-trifluoromethoxyphenyl hydrazone (FCCP) on the fermentation in the light have also been investigted.Anaerobic starch breakdown rnte (13.1 ± 3.5 micromoles C per milligram chlorophyll per hour) is increased 2-fold by FCCP in the dark. Light (100 watts per square meter) decreases up to 4-fold the dark rate, an inhibition reversed by FCCP. Stimulation of starch breakdown by the proton ionophore FCCP points to a pH-controlled rate-limiting step in the dark, while inhibition by light, and its reversal by FCCP, indicates a control by energy charge in the light.In the dark, formate, acetate, and ethanol are formed in the ratios of 2.07:1.07:0.91, and account for roughly 100% of the C from the starch.H2 production is OA3 mole per mole glucose in the starch. Glycerol >-lactate, and CO2 have been detected in minor amounts.In the light, with DCMU and FCCP present, acetate is produced in a 1:1 ratio to formate, and H2 evolution is 2.13 moles per mole glucose. When FCCP only is present, acetate production is lower, and CO2 and H2 evolution is 1.60 and 4.73 moles per mole glucose, respectively.When DCMU alone is present, CO2 and H2 photoevolution is higher than in the dark. Without DCMU, CO2 and H2 evolution is about 100% higher than in its presence. In both conditions, acetate is not formed. In all conditions in the light, ethanol is a minor product. Formate production is least affected by light.The stoichiometry in the dark indicates that starch is degraded via the glycolytic pathway, and pyruvate is broken down into acetyl- (3,19,20,28).Classical glycolysis followed by subsequent metabolism of the pyruvate to the various end-products has been proposed to account for the anaerobic catabolism of starch or glucose in the green algae (17,19,27). Except for H2 evolution, the effect of light on fermentative carbon flow has received little attention. This is principally due to the problems involved with photosynthetic fixation of the CO2 that might be evolved fermentatively. The first to attempt to resolve this question were Klein and Betz (20) who reported that light had no effect on the rate of starch breakdown or the pattern of fermentation in Chlamydomonas moewusii. But they used extremely low levels of light (160 lux (2) made use of C. reinhardtii F-60, a mutant characterized by an incomplete photosynthetic carbon reduction pathway but an intact photosynthetic electron transport chain, to monitor 'true' CO2 and H2 evolution. To account for their results, they proposed an involvement between anaerobic carbohydrate metabolism and the photosynthetic electron transport chain, implying that carbohydrate degradation is entirely or partially localized in the chloroplast. The purpose of our study was to establish for the first time a complete fermentative balance in C. reinhardtii F-60 between...