Nitric oxide production mediated by nitrate reductase in the green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii: an alternative NO production pathway in photosynthetic organisms.

Biological activity of nitric oxide (NO) production was investigated in the unicellular green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. An NO specific electrode detected a rapid increase in signal when nitrite (NO(2)(-)) was added into a suspension of C. reinhardtii intact cells in the dark. The addition of KCN or the NO quencher bovine hemoglobin completely abolished the signal, verifying that the nitrite-dependent increase in signal is due to enzymatic NO production. L-arginine, the substrate for NO synthase, did not induce detectable NO production and the NOS inhibitor N(omega)-nitro-L-arginine showed no inhibitory effect on the nitrite-dependent production of NO. Illuminating cells showed a significant suppressive effect on NO production. When the photosynthetic electron transport inhibitor 3-(3,4-dichlorophenyl)-1,1-dimethylurea was present in the suspension, C. reinhardtii cells produced NO after the addition of nitrite even under illumination. Kinetic and microscopic observations, using the intracellular fluorescent NO probe 4,5-diaminofluorescein-2 diacetate, both demonstrated that NO was produced within the cells in response to the addition of nitrite. The Chlamydomonas mutant cc-2929, which lacks nitrate reductase (NR) activity, did not display any of the responses observed in the wild-type cells. The results presented here provide direct in vivo evidence to confirm that NR is involved in the nitrite-dependent NO production in the green alga.