being intrinsic bioluminescence that was not due to symbiotic organisms, was
published in 1920 by Edmund Newton Harvey (1920).
Buchner mentions the symbiont of Molgula, which I presume is a reference to
Nephromyces. Nephromyces is a genus of apicomplexan that are symbionts of the
ascidian genus Molgula (sea grapes) and that seems to be a beneficial symbiosis
rather than a parasitic one. This particular relationship would thus seem to be an
exception among apicomplexans, which usually are parasitic upon their animal
hosts. Nephromyces lives in the renal sac of its host, wherein there are high
concentrations of the nitrogenous waste product urate. The Nephromyces cells
contain urate oxidase, and thus the Nephromyces may be using waste product
from its host animal as a nitrogen source.
Buchner also mentions endosymbioses of insects including omnivores, wood
eating insects, and insects that consume sap. Those symbionts often assist the host
by providing important metabolic products such as amino acids which the host
otherwise could not obtain from its limited dietary range. The pseudovitellus of
aphids is mentioned, and that is a mycetome that also exists in other insects such as
cicadas which similarly subsist by ingesting plant phloem sap.
The title of Paul Buchners book would suggest that it mentions intracellular
symbionts both of plants and animals, but by my reading this book covers animal
hosts. It is possible that some of the species which we now consider to be either
animals or microbes were, at the time this book was written, considered to have been
plants. Paul Buchner’s book went into several editions by slightly different titles.
14.17 “The Production of Light by the Fishes
Photoblepharon and Anomalops” by Newton
Harvey, 1922
Edmund Newton Harvey was working at Princeton University when he published
this article in which stated that symbiotic bioluminescent bacteria were housed in the
light organs of two marine fish species, Anomalops katoptron and Photoblepharon
palpebratus, and the light emitted by those organs was produced by their symbiotic
bacteria.
These two fish species are termed “Flashlight fish”, and the bioluminescent
bacteria are housed in organs located below the fish eyes. These organs constantly
produce light but the fish can choose to either reveal or conceal that light. Anomalops
fish rotate their luminous organ upward to expose the light and downward to conceal
the light. Photoblepharon fish have a tissue covering which can be opened to reveal
the light and then closed to conceal the light, effectively blinking. Other scientists
had come close to understanding the microbial nature of that light production, but it
was Harvey who in 1922 clearly stated it as being fact.
We have since come to learn that the luminous organs of many other fish and also
squid similarly house bioluminescent symbiotic microorganisms.
234
C. J. Hurst
published in 1920 by Edmund Newton Harvey (1920).
Buchner mentions the symbiont of Molgula, which I presume is a reference to
Nephromyces. Nephromyces is a genus of apicomplexan that are symbionts of the
ascidian genus Molgula (sea grapes) and that seems to be a beneficial symbiosis
rather than a parasitic one. This particular relationship would thus seem to be an
exception among apicomplexans, which usually are parasitic upon their animal
hosts. Nephromyces lives in the renal sac of its host, wherein there are high
concentrations of the nitrogenous waste product urate. The Nephromyces cells
contain urate oxidase, and thus the Nephromyces may be using waste product
from its host animal as a nitrogen source.
Buchner also mentions endosymbioses of insects including omnivores, wood
eating insects, and insects that consume sap. Those symbionts often assist the host
by providing important metabolic products such as amino acids which the host
otherwise could not obtain from its limited dietary range. The pseudovitellus of
aphids is mentioned, and that is a mycetome that also exists in other insects such as
cicadas which similarly subsist by ingesting plant phloem sap.
The title of Paul Buchners book would suggest that it mentions intracellular
symbionts both of plants and animals, but by my reading this book covers animal
hosts. It is possible that some of the species which we now consider to be either
animals or microbes were, at the time this book was written, considered to have been
plants. Paul Buchner’s book went into several editions by slightly different titles.
14.17 “The Production of Light by the Fishes
Photoblepharon and Anomalops” by Newton
Harvey, 1922
Edmund Newton Harvey was working at Princeton University when he published
this article in which stated that symbiotic bioluminescent bacteria were housed in the
light organs of two marine fish species, Anomalops katoptron and Photoblepharon
palpebratus, and the light emitted by those organs was produced by their symbiotic
bacteria.
These two fish species are termed “Flashlight fish”, and the bioluminescent
bacteria are housed in organs located below the fish eyes. These organs constantly
produce light but the fish can choose to either reveal or conceal that light. Anomalops
fish rotate their luminous organ upward to expose the light and downward to conceal
the light. Photoblepharon fish have a tissue covering which can be opened to reveal
the light and then closed to conceal the light, effectively blinking. Other scientists
had come close to understanding the microbial nature of that light production, but it
was Harvey who in 1922 clearly stated it as being fact.
We have since come to learn that the luminous organs of many other fish and also
squid similarly house bioluminescent symbiotic microorganisms.
234
C. J. Hurst