Studies on the cell wall of Chlorella I. Quantitative changes in cell wall polysaccharides during the cell cycle of Chlorella ellipsoidea

The cell wall of Chlorella ellipsoidea was fractionated into two components, alkali-soluble hemicellulose and alkali-insoluble “rigid wall”. The former was composed of several neutral sugars, i.e. rhamnose, xylose, arabinose, mannose and galactose, and the latter had glucosamine as a main constituent sugar. 2. Quantitative changes in both hemicellulose and “rigid wall” contents during the cell cycle were followed using synchronously grown cells. The two cell wall components showed markedly different changes. Hemicellulose increased in proportion to the enlargement of the cell surface area in the growing phase, while the “rigid wall” remained almost constant in this phase. The “rigid wall” increased only in the reproduction phase—the time of autospore formation.