Noctiluca scintillans
Noctiluca scintillans
Noctiluca scintillans, synonym Noctiluca miliaris, called German Noctiluca, is a free-living, non- marine dinoflagellate parasitierender, which is capable of bioluminescence.
Features
Noctiluca scintillans is not a typical dinoflagellate. His cell can swell by massive vacuolization of the cytoplasm to a size between 200 microns and 2 mm in diameter and then round to bean-shaped. The type has no theca.
Noctiluca scintillans has a ventral furrow with a scourge. The scourge drives the cell not to. The protozoa can move only by adjusting its buoyancy in the water. He can slowly rise or fall. In addition, Noctiluca scintillans has a "tooth" said formation of the cell wall and tentacles used for catching prey. At least one study showed that one strand of sticky mucus is ejected from the tentacles stick to the then food particles.
The bioluminescence is produced in many very small, round organelles. Non- luminous strains do not possess this " Scintillions ".
Way of life
Noctiluca scintillans is heterotrophic and takes the food particles by phagocytosis on. The prey generally consists of plankton, including diatoms, dinoflagellates, bacteria and fish eggs. The robust shells of diatoms are clearly visible in the vacuoles of the cell of Noctiluca miliaris almost transparent and can be determined even after eating.
Noctiluca scintillans is found in all oceans, often along coasts and in estuaries, ie areas that enable high nutrient concentration a strong growth of the phototrophic prey. High concentrations of these food sources also result in Noctiluca scintillans for proliferation and formation of algal blooms. Noctiluca scintillans itself is not toxic, but can release large amounts of ammonium, which is dangerous for fish.
Nomenclature
Noctiluca scintillans was described in 1810 by Macartney under the name Medusa scintillans. The protozoa was then still considered small jellyfish. Already Slabber had described him in 1778 as Medusa marina and illustrated in his book on microscopy on a blackboard. But slabbers designation did not meet the intentions of Linnaeus' binomial nomenclature. Jean Baptiste Lamarck used the name Noctiluca miliaris in 1816 from a manuscript of Suriray for his performance in Animaux sans Vertebres. Since then, the dinoflagellate Noctiluca miliaris was usually called. Only Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg recognized in 1834 in his book The glow of the sea, the priority of Macartney. 1921 published Kofoid and Sweze a new description of Noctiluca scintillans and a compilation of all synonyms, from which also gave rise to the priority of the species name scintillans. Noctiluca miliaris was but still preferred the little-known name Noctiluca scintillans. Only since Taylor's 1976 proposal to published, acknowledge the priority of the Artepithetons scintillans despite all the problems, this is by slowly.