Chlorella sorokiniana

Chlorella sorokiniana is a species of freshwater green microalga in the division Chlorophyta. The original strain of C. sorokiniana was first isolated by Constantine A. Sorokin in 1951 from a freshwater stream on the University of Texas campus in Austin, Texas; he labeled it as Chlorella pyrenoidosa strain 7-1 1-05. In 1965, Ikuko Shihira and Robert W. Krauss reinvestigated the strain and found it to be its own species, naming it after Sorokin.

Chlorella sorokiniana consists of single, spherical cells that grow up to 5.5 μm in diameter. The chloroplast (chromatophore) inside the cell is single, bowl-shaped and green but often turns white in old cultures. A pyrenoid is present in the chloroplast. Cells grow rapidly on agar without organic nutrients, and grows well on glucose in light and to a lesser extent in darkness. Other sugars such as galactose and mannose may stimulate its growth less or not help it grow at all.