Evidence for light perception in a bioluminescent organ

Here we show that bioluminescent organs of the squid Euprymna scolopes possess the molecular, biochemical, and physiological capability for light detection. Transcriptome analyses revealed expression of genes encoding key visual transduction proteins in light-organ tissues, including the same isofor...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS 2009-06, Vol.106 (24), p.9836-9841
Main Authors: Tong, Deyan, Rozas, Natalia S, Oakley, Todd H, Mitchell, Jane, Colley, Nansi J, McFall-Ngai, Margaret J
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal organs
Animals
Bacteria
Bacterial Physiological Phenomena
Biological Sciences
Complementary DNA
Decapodiformes - physiology
Electroretinography
Euprymna scolopes
Eyes
Gene expression
Genes
Human organs
Immunohistochemistry
Light
Luminescence
Molecular Sequence Data
Opsins
Photoreceptors
Phototransduction
Proteins
Squid
Symbionts
Tissues
Visual Perception
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Here we show that bioluminescent organs of the squid Euprymna scolopes possess the molecular, biochemical, and physiological capability for light detection. Transcriptome analyses revealed expression of genes encoding key visual transduction proteins in light-organ tissues, including the same isoform of opsin that occurs in the retina. Electroretinograms demonstrated that the organ responds physiologically to light, and immunocytochemistry experiments localized multiple proteins of visual transduction cascades to tissues housing light-producing bacterial symbionts. These data provide evidence that the light-organ tissues harboring the symbionts serve as extraocular photoreceptors, with the potential to perceive directly the bioluminescence produced by their bacterial partners.
ISSN:0027-8424
1091-6490
DOI:10.1073/pnas.0904571106