Bioluminous Squid

Heidelberg: When you have a lot of time, and a lot of different things; evolution comes with some really spectacular solutions.

One of nature’s spectacular solutions is bioluminescence the ability of organisms to glow in the dark. Among them are bacteria, which have evolved to form a symbiosis – a mutually beneficial relationship – with a squid. I’m Jim Metzner and this is the Pulse of the Planet.

Heidelberg: A very interesting form of symbiosis with bioluminescent bacteria is with the Hawaiian Bobtail Squid.

John Heidelberg is an Associate Professor of biology at the University of Southern California. The squid in question is able to camouflage itself by glowing in the dark, with the help of the bioluminescent bacteria it hosts on the underside of its body.

Heidelberg: That may sound counter intuitive that you’re actually being camouflaged at night by glowing in the dark, but really a lot of predator organisms in the ocean look for a shadow passing over them, and that shadow means a prey organism. So what these squid have, are bioluminescent bacteria on the bottom side of them that are glowing, so when they swim over a predator, they’re not casting a shadow, and the predator can’t see them.

So the squid gets light and camouflage and in return it provides the bacteria it hosts with a source of food and shelter.

Heidelberg: The light that’s being produced is being produced from chemical energy in the cell. So in effect, what’s really happening is just the chemical energy that the bacteria gets from eating food is being converted into light.

In order to produce bioluminescence, billion of bacteria have to agree to light up together. We’ll hear about how that happens in future programs. Our thanks to Earthwatch. I’m Jim Metzner and this is the Pulse of the Planet.

Bioluminous Squid

Meet one of evolution's spectacular solutions.

Air Date:02/02/2018

Scientist:

Transcript:

Bioluminous Squid

Heidelberg: When you have a lot of time, and a lot of different things; evolution comes with some really spectacular solutions.

One of nature's spectacular solutions is bioluminescence the ability of organisms to glow in the dark. Among them are bacteria, which have evolved to form a symbiosis - a mutually beneficial relationship - with a squid. I'm Jim Metzner and this is the Pulse of the Planet.

Heidelberg: A very interesting form of symbiosis with bioluminescent bacteria is with the Hawaiian Bobtail Squid.

John Heidelberg is an Associate Professor of biology at the University of Southern California. The squid in question is able to camouflage itself by glowing in the dark, with the help of the bioluminescent bacteria it hosts on the underside of its body.

Heidelberg: That may sound counter intuitive that you're actually being camouflaged at night by glowing in the dark, but really a lot of predator organisms in the ocean look for a shadow passing over them, and that shadow means a prey organism. So what these squid have, are bioluminescent bacteria on the bottom side of them that are glowing, so when they swim over a predator, they're not casting a shadow, and the predator can't see them.

So the squid gets light and camouflage and in return it provides the bacteria it hosts with a source of food and shelter.

Heidelberg: The light that's being produced is being produced from chemical energy in the cell. So in effect, what's really happening is just the chemical energy that the bacteria gets from eating food is being converted into light.

In order to produce bioluminescence, billion of bacteria have to agree to light up together. We'll hear about how that happens in future programs. Our thanks to Earthwatch. I'm Jim Metzner and this is the Pulse of the Planet.