FIRECAKEJoin Date: 2009-02-28
Post Count: 25167 |
Bioluminescence is the production of light as a result of a chemical reaction within an organism. The phenomenon is most predominantly found in the ocean, more specifically the deep ocean, where light from the sun cannot reach (University, 2014). Dinoflagellates are unicellular protists, a type of eukaryote, and are often the primary food source in aquatic food chains, as they are most commonly found in plankton. Key characteristics of dinoflagellates are their behaviors such as floating on the surface of water like an algae plant, but also their organelles like nuclei that separate them from normal top-floaters like algae. In some species of dinoflagellates, bioluminescence is also a defining feature (Smithsonian, 2014). The emission of light from a single dinoflagellate usually only lasts about 100 milliseconds (0.1 seconds) and is most commonly observed at night. This observation is a result of the period during the day that the organisms need to recharge the chemicals that cause bioluminescence reactions in order to be able to produce a light emission during the night to scare away or at least interrupt predators (Scripps, 1995). While the production of light is known to occur in predator-prey situations, it has also been found to occur by stirring the water around a swarm of dinoflagellates to simulate a predatory fish swimming nearby enough to generate waves that would alert nearby organisms of its presence (Latz, 2007). It was recently found that the genomes in dinoflagellate mitochondria are derived from a common ancestor with many other eukaryotic protists, showing that their bioluminescence is an evolutionary trait and adding to the evidence that dinoflagellates were able to adapt to predatory environments by developing a biological defense mechanism: bioluminescence (Jackson, 2007).
Dinoflagellates have not been studied very closely, so not much specifically is known about their bioluminescent reactions. What is known is that the light produced is the result of a chemical reaction that increases the amount of protons flowing into the cell, also causing a drop in the pH of the organism. In marine environments, dinoflagellate bioluminescence is found to have a disruptive effect on the feeding habits of predators, similar to the way some lizards spread their scales to appear bigger and scare predators. The bioluminescent emissions observed is also thought to be a sort of warning call for other organisms in the area to warn them that a predator was near even if the organisms could not detect the predator themselves (Scripps, 1995). Like most other organisms on Earth, dinoflagellates have a circadian rhythm (Assure, 2011), a 24-hour cycle that affects the physiological processes of organisms. Circadian rhythms are generally internalized and control things like sleep patterns, hormone production, and daily patterns, but can be affected by external cues from the environment such as light-dark cycles and external temperature (National, 2012). Because dinoflagellates’ chemicals are thought to need a light-dark cycle to be able to recharge themselves and disrupting external factors can lead to a disruption of an organism’s circadian rhythm, disruption of a dinoflagellate’s light-dark cycle and thus its circadian rhythm should cause the organism to be unable to create its typical bioluminescent inducing reaction.
As previously stated, dinoflagellates are primarily observed at night because of the Earth’s natural light-dark cycle that is caused by the position of the sun to the side of the Earth and the Earth’s rotation. The cycle is thought to allow the dinoflagellates time to recharge the chemicals that start the bioluminescent reaction, but not much is known about how exactly the light-dark cycle affects the organism. This experiment is being conducted to test the importance of the light-dark cycle that naturally occurs in nature as a result of the rotation of the earth in the ability of dinoflagellates to emit light when they detect a disturbance in the water to simulate a nearby predator. It is hypothesized that if the natural light-dark cycle of a dinoflagellate is altered then the ability of the organism to carry out a chemical reaction in order to produce light will decrease because the chemicals in the dinoflagellate that cause the reaction will not have time to recharge and will not be able to start a reaction in the first place.
if it makes sense to you then it will make sense to my AP biology teacher |
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FIRECAKEJoin Date: 2009-02-28
Post Count: 25167 |
inb4tl;dr |
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123yonndTop 100 PosterJoin Date: 2008-07-19
Post Count: 66637 |
i do not have the attention span to read a 400 word (guessing) about the ocean. |
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BroBro264Join Date: 2011-07-12
Post Count: 28121 |
tl;dr |
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cha20Join Date: 2009-04-27
Post Count: 4268 |
it makes sense, looks pretty good to me. |
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drbatJoin Date: 2008-09-13
Post Count: 19350 |
Read the first word and got bored intently |
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tl;dr
-TRAPPED LIKE SNAKES IN A HALLWAY FULL OF GLUE- |
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FIRECAKEJoin Date: 2009-02-28
Post Count: 25167 |
thanks cha
and donny it isn't about the ocean it is about dinoflagellate bioluminescence and the effect of the disruption of their circadian rhythms on the production of chemicals that being a reaction that induce a surplus intake of protons into the membrane of the organism
qq |
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IslesllahJoin Date: 2013-10-13
Post Count: 5031 |
[ Content Deleted ] |
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FIRECAKEJoin Date: 2009-02-28
Post Count: 25167 |
*begin not being |
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123yonndTop 100 PosterJoin Date: 2008-07-19
Post Count: 66637 |
I got bored reading that. |
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FIRECAKEJoin Date: 2009-02-28
Post Count: 25167 |
here are my sources also
References
Assure Controls, Inc. (2011). All about dinoflagellates. Retrieved February 9, 2014, from Assure Controls website: http://www.assurecontrols.com/all-about-dinoflagellates/
Jackson, C. J., Norman, J. E., Schnare, M. N., Gray, M. W., Keeling, P. J., & Walter, R. F. (2007). Broad genomic and transcriptional analysis reveals a highly derived genome in dinoflagellate mitochondria. BMC Biology, 5(41). http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1741-7007-5-41
Latz, M. I., & Maldonado, E. M. (2007). Shear-stress dependence of dinoflagellate bioluminescence. The Biological Bulletin, 212(3), 242-249. Retrieved from http://www.biolbull.org/content/212/3/242.long
National Institutes of Health. (2012, November). Circadian rhythms [Fact sheet]. Retrieved February 9, 2014, from National Institute of General Medical Services website: http://www.nigms.nih.gov/Education/Pages/Factsheet_CircadianRhythms.aspx
Scripps Institution of Oceanography. (1995). Dinoflagellate bioluminescence. Retrieved February 9, 2014, from Latz Laboratory Scripps Institution of Oceanography website: http://siobiolum.ucsd.edu/dino_bl.html
Smithsonian Institution. (2014). Dinoflagellates. Retrieved February 11, 2014, from Smithsonian: National Museum of Natural History website: http://www.mnh.si.edu/highlight/sem/dinoflagellates.html
University of California, Santa Barbara. (2014, January 24). The bioluminescence web page. Retrieved February 11, 2014, from The Bioluminescence Web Page website: http://biolum.eemb.ucsb.edu/
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123yonndTop 100 PosterJoin Date: 2008-07-19
Post Count: 66637 |
Who honestly reads sources?
I just find keywords from sources on Wiki then summarize that crap and use that as my source instead of Wiki. |
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FIRECAKEJoin Date: 2009-02-28
Post Count: 25167 |
we need to have reputable sources because my bio teacher goes over all of them individually to make sure they are legit and we didn't plagiarize |
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