High-light selection produces a fast-growing Picochlorum celeri

A new species of marine algae Picochlorum celeri was obtained by enriching for fast reproductive rates under constant high irradiance in semi-continuous culture. Several rapidly-growing cell lines were isolated from the enrichment culture by bringing up cultures from single cells in very high light Therefore, individual cells are very resilient to inhibition by light This is a prominent characteristic of this P. celeri in all cell lines. Measured oxygen evolution rates were unusually high. One of these lines is able to double in as short as 2.0 h. Doubling times of other cell lines were between 2.4 and 3.5 h. This species is characterized by high pigment content, high absorption cross section, and an antenna size that is very responsive to irradiance becoming very small at high irradiance.