Oxygen-18 Exchange as a Measure of Accessibility of CO(2) and HCO(3) to Carbonic Anhydrase in Chlorella vulgaris (UTEX 263).

We have measured the exchange of (18)O between CO(2) and H(2)O in stirred suspensions of Chlorella vulgaris (UTEX 263) using a membrane inlet to a mass spectrometer. The depletion of (18)O from CO(2) in the fluid outside the cells provides a method to study CO(2) and HCO(3) (-) kinetics in suspensions of algae that contain carbonic anhydrase since (18)O loss to H(2)O is catalyzed inside the cells but not in the external fluid. Low-CO(2) cells of Chlorella vulgaris (grown with air) were added to a solution containing (18)O enriched CO(2) and HCO(3) (-) with 2 to 15 millimolar total inorganic carbon. The observed depletion of (18)O from CO(2) was biphasic and the resulting (18)C content of CO(2) was much less than the (18)O content of HCO(3) (-) in the external solution. Analysis of the slopes showed that the Fick's law rate constant for entry of HCO(3) (-) into the cell was experimentally indistinguishable from zero (bicarbonate impermeable) with an upper limit of 3 x 10(-4) s(-1) due to our experimental errors. The Fick's law rate constant for entry of CO(2) to the sites of intracellular carbonic anhydrase was large, 0.013 per second, but not as great as calculated for no membrane barrier to CO(2) flux (6 per second). The experimental value may be explained by a nonhomogeneous distribution of carbonic anhydrase in the cell (such as membrane-bound enzyme) or by a membrane barrier to CO(2) entry into the cell or both. The CO(2) hydration activity inside the cells was 160 times the uncatalyzed CO(2) hydration rate.