Bioluminescence in fireflies: Fireflies used rapid light flashes to communicate. This "bioluminescence"
is an intriguing phenomenon that has many potential applications, from
drug testing and monitoring water contamination, and even lighting up
streets using glow-in-dark trees and plants.
Mechanism: Fireflies emit light when a compound called luciferin breaks down. We know that this reaction needs oxygen, but what we don't know is how fireflies actually supply oxygen to their light-emitting cells.
The firefly's light-producing organ is called the "lantern," and it is located in the insect's abdomen. It looks like a series of tubes progressing into smaller ones and so one, like a tree's branches growing into twigs. The function of these tubes, called, is to supply oxygen to the cells of the lantern, which contain luciferase and can produce light.
Latest studies: Scientists from Switzerland and Taiwan have determined how fireflies control oxygen distribution to light up their cells.
The imaging showed that the firefly diverts oxygen from other cellular functions and puts it into the reaction that breaks up luciferin. Specifically, the researchers found that oxygen consumption in the cell decreased, slowing down energy production. At the same time, oxygen supply switched to light-emission.
#Yueh-Lin Tsai, Chia-Wei Li, Tzay-Ming Hong, Jen-Zon Ho, En-Cheng Yang,
Wen-Yen Wu, G. Margaritondo, Su-Ting Hsu, Edwin B. L. Ong, and Y. Hwu. Firefly light flashing: Oxygen supply mechanism. Physical Review Letters, 2014 [link]
#thankfully cited and shared from:http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/12/141217074508.htm
Mechanism: Fireflies emit light when a compound called luciferin breaks down. We know that this reaction needs oxygen, but what we don't know is how fireflies actually supply oxygen to their light-emitting cells.
The firefly's light-producing organ is called the "lantern," and it is located in the insect's abdomen. It looks like a series of tubes progressing into smaller ones and so one, like a tree's branches growing into twigs. The function of these tubes, called, is to supply oxygen to the cells of the lantern, which contain luciferase and can produce light.
Latest studies: Scientists from Switzerland and Taiwan have determined how fireflies control oxygen distribution to light up their cells.
The imaging showed that the firefly diverts oxygen from other cellular functions and puts it into the reaction that breaks up luciferin. Specifically, the researchers found that oxygen consumption in the cell decreased, slowing down energy production. At the same time, oxygen supply switched to light-emission.
This detailed microimage shows
larger channels branching into smaller
ones,
supplying oxygen for the firefly's light emission.
The smallest
channels are ten thousand times smaller than a millimeter
and therefore
invisible to other experimental probes.
 |
| Credit: Giorgio Margaritondo/EPFL |
#thankfully cited and shared from:http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/12/141217074508.htm
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