Cnidarians: The Evolution Of Biolumines

Moon Jellyfish are in the “Animalia Kingdom, Phylum Cnidarian, Class Scyphozoan, Order Semaeostomeae, Family Ulmaridae, and Genus Aurelia” ( Myers, 2016 ; Espinosa, ; 2016 ; Parr, 2016 ; Jones, 2026 ; Hammond, 2016 ; Dewey, 2016). The morphological description of Cnidarians are corals, sea anemones, jellyfish and hydroids. These cnidarians form a diverse phylum that contains ~9000 species, which live in aquatic (predominantly marine) environments. The phylum-defining trait of Cnidaria is the stinging cell, the nematocyte an extrusive organelle used for predation, adhesion and defense (Holstein, 1981; Lengfeld et al., 2009; Tardent and Holstein, 1982) (Steele and Technau; 2011). Also, this phylum, Cnidarians, are divided into two groups, “Anthozoa (sea anemones, corals and sea pens), which live as

Most reef-building corals contain photosynthetic algae, termed zooxanthellae, that live in their tissues. The corals and algae have a mutualistic association. The coral provides the algae a environment and compound

In the article “What’s at the Bottom of the Ocean?” authored by Samantha Larson, it states that there is more to see on the ocean floor than meets the eye. David Gruber, the main oceanographer in the ocean exploration team, has discovered hundreds of unknown species and has even helped with breakthroughs in medical research. “The deep sea is a beautiful and foreign place, with many different creatures and geological structures,” Gruber expressed. When he was traveling underwater in the South Pacific, he witnessed tens of thousands of tiny flashlight fish swimming in 20 foot waters. He also discovered that these flashlight fish use biofluorescence to communicate with each other by absorbing blue light and turning

Fireflies are able to light up because inside their body, there there is a chemical reaction produced. The light production is also known as bioluminescence. The best known example of bioluminescence is the production of light by fireflies. In presence of luciferase, adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and the chemical luciferin in the presence produce light when oxygen combines with calcium. A firefly’s light is cold light and causes less energy is lost as heat which makes it special than light bulb. In a light bulb, a lot of heat in addition to

There are many Cnidarians that live and thrive in our tropical waters. Although most are harmless to humans, there are some that can kill you in a matter of minutes. The Cnidarians defend themselves with their stinging cells called nematocysts. When a predator or threat comes too close and brushes against its tentacles, it injects toxins into the blood stream and often effecting the nervous system. In most cases, if a very dangerous jellyfish is spotted along a stretch of beach, the life guards will close down that beach.

Daphnia is an order of cladoceran that are a part of the genus of small crustaceans ranging from one to five millimeters in length (Campbell, 2004; Corroto 2010). Daphnia are also naturally transparent, allowing for a variety of research opportunities that are observable with current day technology. Water fleas are another name for Daphnia due to their distinct, jerky swimming patterns (Chin, 2011; Campbell, 2004). Additionally, Daphnia seem to have tufts of hair, relatively large eyes, and red “lips”. Daphnia also feature an ocellus, a light-sensing organ under the compound eye (Chin, 2011; Corotto, 2010).

Green Fluorescent Protein, produced by the bioluminescent jellyfish Aequorea victoria, is a protein that fluoresces green under ultraviolet light. Since its discovery, properties of the protein have been improved by mutations in the gene resulting in the expansion of its spectrum, which now contains brighter variants and multiple different colors. GFP is used in a wide variety of applications and technologies. Its many different applications have contributed greatly, and continue to do so, in numerous fields of study including, but not limited to, cellular and molecular biology, microbiology, biotechnology, and medicine.

The closest to the surface is the epipelagic subzone stretches to about 200m. This zone has enough sunlight and nutrients for bigger marine creatures like tuna, sharks, giant jellyfish and predator fishes. The second subzone, the mesopelagic, also known as the twilight zone, with the depth of 200m to 1000m; this zone has barely sunlight. The insufficient of sunlight prohibits organisms to perform photosynthesis in the twilight zone. Surviving in the twilight zone is about seeing and not being seen. These organisms need to be able to see their prey, but they should not be spotted by their predators. The next subzone is the bathypelagic ranging from 1000 to 4000 m, containing bioluminescent marine organisms which create light, like hatchet fish and squid. Below 150m, photosynthesis is impossible; hence there are only animals and no plants in this region and below. The animals living in the bathypelagic zone solely rely on detritus for food or on eating other animals. At this depth and pressure, the animals most commonly found are fish, mollusks, crustaceans, and jellyfish.Red, black and bioluminescent animals in this appear as completely black to others since there is very little to no light penetration at this depth. Following the bathypelagic is the abyssopelagic zone, locating with the depth of 4,000m, it is

During the day, the squid bury itself in sand or muddy area near sea grass beds. Besides that, it forms camouflage by gluing sand grain to its body. Night, they emerge to feed. A type of bioluminescence sea creature. It will emit light from their ventral surface. The light emitted is adjusted to match the intensity of moonlight. Collaboration of Hawaiian bobtail squid's eyes and extraocular vesicle use to monitor the down-welling light via silhouette reduction. This behaviour called as counter-illumination. Thus, the squid can adjust the intensity of bioluminescence as it moves to various depth by modifying the ink sac, which function as a diaphragm around the

Chlorophyll-a is a specific form of Chlorophyll, used in oxygenic photosynthesis. Measurement and determination of this parameter are the basic analysis to evaluate the characteristics of algae blooms in many research works in the world. Unfortunately, Chlorophyll-a represents just the whole quantity of photosynthesis pigment released from all algae and micro-plants present in water, hence it cannot help to distinguish cyanobacteria existence among all living micro plants and algae in the waterbody. To be able to define and confirm the existence of Cyanobacteria species in the composition of aquatic microalgae, another pigment form, Phycocyanin, is used. Phycocyanin is the pigment, which differs cyanobacteria species from another planktonic species, and could give us a real picture of quantity of cyanobacterial genera in the water. Phycocyanin is actually a pigment-protein complex from the light-harvesting phycobiliprotein family, along with allophycocyanin and phycoerythrin. It is considered as an accessory pigment to

Giving the specimens two more days to develop we checked them midweek. We found that out of the percentage of surviving specimens (those that actually hatched) a vast majority seemed to be thriving. However similar to the hatch rate there did not seem to be a clear trend favoring one color of light over the other. We did find that the dish deprived of light seemed to consistently have a better hatch rate as well as survival rate after birth. These finding seemed to support our original hypothesis that the colored wavelengths would negatively affect the brine shrimp development.

This ability supports the notion that cephalopods have some mechanism for spectral discrimination. Another possibility is that cephalopods use photoreceptors in their skin to match the surrounding environment. This approach would allow the cephalopods to have only one photoreceptor type while still being able to match the surrounding environment with the use of the photoreceptors in their skin. However, genomic testing revealed no additional opsins (Albertin, et al., 2015) in the eye, or the skin. With no other light-sensing receptors other than the one photoreceptor type in the retina, the focus shifts to how might the cephalopod determine color with just one type of photoreceptor. Recent research (Stubbs & Stubbs, 2016) has supported the notion that color discrimination in cephalopods that have only one photoreceptor type is accomplished via the use of off-axis pupils and longitudinal chromatic aberration

For a long time the deep ocean was considered a unable to sustain life. Bone-crushing pressure, freezing temperatures, and devoid of sunlight are all elements that should prevent any form of life from existing, yet it does. In the video, we saw that the deep ocean was teeming with life, completely foreign looking, but life nonetheless. Bioluminescence plays a key factor in the deep and is often the only light that appears in this dark place. Many predators use their bioluminescence in the form of lures to catch their prey. The angler fish does just this and can often lure in big prey. Since meals may be few and far between, the angler has a highly expendable stomach to ensure it reaps the entire reward of its hunt. Bioluminescence

II. How Bioluminescence Works A. Luciferin 1. A luciferin is a light-producing substance B. Luciferase 1.

Cnidarians (or coelenterates), including sea anemones, jellyfish, and corals, are built mostly of sheets of cells, and they exploit the large surface area of the