A new phycocyanin (PC) fluorescent subunit named β2 (18 kDa) was isolated and characterized by both SDS-PAGE and isoelectric focusing (IEF) from a species of cryptophytic alga Chroomonas placoidea. PC was separated and purified by ammonium sulfate sedimentation followed by two steps of Sephadex G-100 chromatography. After denatured in 4 mol/L urea for 48 h, PC was divided into two fractions by passing through a Sephacryl S-100 chromatography column twice. The blue fraction (S-1) contained β subunits with a maximal absorbance at 595 nm in visible light region. While the green fraction (S-2) enriched in α subunits showed a characteristic long wavelength absorbance at 680-700 nm region and exhibited a relatively low molecular weight of 9.4 (α1) and 8.5 kDa (α2). Fraction S-1 also consisted of two different fluorescent subunits with molecular weight of 20.1 kDa (β1) and 18 kDa (β2) and differed from each other on isoelectric points of pH 5.7 (β1) and 6.0 (β2), respectively. Further investigation of peptide sequence will help a lot in elucidating the new subunit β2 that was smaller in size and more neutral than the known β1 subunit, and may provide an alternative explanation in structure of cryptophytic phycobiliproteins.