Organisms use the elements available in their environments to build biological molecules. In this case, the Chlorella algae's environment is its culture medium. So, if a certain element is absent from the culture medium, the algae won't be able to efficiently build molecules that contain that element.
According to the graph, the rate of synthesis for lipids and carbohydrates didn’t change over the 3-week period, but the rate of synthesis for proteins and nucleic acids decreased. These results indicate that the culture medium contained all of the elements required for building lipids and carbohydrates, but not for building proteins and nucleic acids.
Many lipids contain phosphorus, so it’s unlikely that phosphates (a source of phosphorus) were missing from the culture medium. However, both proteins and nucleic acids contain nitrogen, while lipids and carbohydrates do not. So, it’s likely that the culture medium lacked nitrogen-containing compounds.
Organisms
use
the elements available in their environments to build biological molecules.
In this case
, the Chlorella algae's environment is its
culture
medium
.
So
, if a certain element is absent from the
culture
medium
, the algae won't be able to
efficiently
build molecules that contain that element.
According to the graph, the rate of synthesis for lipids and carbohydrates didn’t
change
over the 3-week period,
but
the rate of synthesis for proteins and nucleic acids decreased. These results indicate that the
culture
medium
contained
all of the
elements required for building lipids and carbohydrates,
but
not for building proteins and nucleic acids.
Many
lipids contain phosphorus,
so
it’s unlikely that phosphates (a source of phosphorus) were missing from the
culture
medium
.
However
, both proteins and nucleic acids contain nitrogen, while lipids and carbohydrates do not.
So
, it’s likely that the
culture
medium
lacked nitrogen-containing compounds.