Chlorella ellipsoidea were cultured in the media containing rifampicin for 7 days. Aliquot cells were taken out after the inoculation and at intervals during cultivation and growth rate of Chlorella cells was measured. In order to investigate the effect of rifampicin on the nucleic acid synthesis, nucleic acid and RNA polymerase were extracted from chloroplast isolated from these cells, and the contents of nucleic acid and activity of enzyme were measured to compared with those of the control. The inhibitory concentration of rifampicin on growth was 80 ppm. The DNA contents in chloroplasts isolated were decreased 60% to compared with control, whole cells were markedly decreased 70% by rifampicin. The contents of base in the RNA were decreased 46% by rifampicin in shole cell, and 77% of base contents were decreased in chloroplast. Rifampicin also inhibited the activity of RNA polymerase, therefore whole cell was decreased 10% of activity and chloroplasts were decreased 42% of activity.