Bioluminescence

This study set out to demonstrate that bioluminescence in Motyxia evolved in a common ancestor and grew brighter through evolutionary time. How did they do this? Existing research had already demonstrated that 10 discovered species of Motyxia had different levels of bioluminescence. By measuring the variance in the brightness between species, the authors of the study attempted to gain an insight into how their bioluminescence evolved. An experiment was set up to measure the brightness of each species. The experiments used a number of wild species of Motyxia and a control group of closely related millipedes which do not have bioluminescent properties, all from the genus Xystocheir (Figure 1). While observing the millipedes in the absence of light, one of the…

Through the lecture, the professor explains why a re-examination of available information has produced new conclusions about why bioluminescence occurs in the mushroom kingdom. Although he agrees with the general information in the reading, he believes it generates alternative conclusions. The first bit of information he refutes is the idea that mushrooms emit light to attract insects to their spores. He points out that the part of the mushroom that emits light is not the same as the part that…

Much of the ocean has still been unexplored, but the parts that we have explored have allowed us to see something nearly unbelievable for the first time: fish that naturally light up! In fact, many different types of creatures that live in the water light up: squid, eel, jellyfish, which can be seen to the right in figure one, and many various species of fish have the ability to do such. The ability, called bioluminescence, is defined as “ the emission of light from living organisms”, according…

Vibrio Fischeri is its bioluminescence. This bioluminescence comes from one of the products of a reaction catalysed by the enzyme luciferase (see biochemistry and metabolism). Vibrio Fischeri are easy to grow and they display chemotaxic behaviour. It is best to grow Vibrio Fischeri at 28 degrees Celsius. (DeLoney-Marino CR, 2013) Vibrio Fischeri is a heterotroph and has the ability to be anaerobic and aerobic which was determined through genome sequencing and chemical assays. One of the ways in…

of the E. Coli but no bioluminescence occurred. The LB/AmpC agar plate contained the control plasmid, ampicillin, nutrient broth and had no growth with no bioluminescence occurring because there was no plasmid uptake. The agar plate labeled LBNP contained simply the nutrient broth with the competent cells and had no bioluminescence. The ampicillin or plasmid were not in this agar plate so the bacterial growth was normal and appeared to have lawn growth. The LB/AmpNP agar plate contained…

of animal increases or it decreases. Basically one looses and one is the winner. The Aequorea Victoria Jellyfish contains two types of mixtures. Luminescent protein aequorin and fluorescent molecules are purified, extracted, and will finally be cloned. The Aequorea Victoria jellyfish contains a protein that releases blue light that bonds up with calcium called aequorin. The blue light is absorbed by the GFP (green fluorescent protein). You may be wondering to yourself, well what is GFP? Let me…

visualised1-3. These nano particles have high size-tunability, once illuminated, different emission wavelength can be obtained by manipulating the size of dots3. Inorganic QDs are made up of two components, an atom-cluster core with selenium or cadmium, and a shell made of inorganic materials. The inorganic shell has ability to cross-link with larger organic particles such as peptides and DNA, assuring their application in biotechnical field, such as biological tags and bio-imaging sources2.…

Hi, today I am going to talk about Bioluminescent Plankton. What are they? Well they are small organisms that float in large numbers in either salt or fresh water. They belong to three groups called phytoplankton, zooplankton, and bacterioplankton. Plankton are a significant food source for blue whales, shrimp and jelly fish. Bioluminescent plankton belong to phytoplankton which use sunlight to make its own food, and zooplankton which feeds on phytoplankton and other small organisms.…

This means that bioluminescence is the only source of light, which affects the vision of the organisms that live in the deep ocean. Because it is harder, if not impossible, to see in the deep ocean, it is a lot more difficult to find mates, avoid predators, and find food. To survive, many organisms have changed their colour over time to blend in with the darkness to avoid predators, or developed bioluminescence to find prey and for defence. Some organisms may even have developed larger eyes or…

A. fischeriThe overall purpose of this study was to create a genomic library of Aliivibrio fischeri (A. fischeri) thus aiding in creating a restriction map of the lux operon. It also employs typical molecular techniques important for biologists to understand. In this portion of the lab, the chromosomal DNA (chDNA) will be isolated. Its purity will be measured using spectrophotometric analysis. Lastly, the DNA will be digested and verified via gel electrophoresis. A. fischeri is a gram…