Claes, Julien
[UCL]
Mallefet, Jérôme
[UCL]
Delroisse, Jérôme
[UCL]
Duchatelet, Laurent
[UCL]
The velvet belly lanternshark (Etmopterus spinax) is a small deep-sea shark commonly found in the Eastern Atlantic and the Mediterranean Sea. As other members of the Etmopteridae family, it displays thousands of tiny epidermal light organs called photophores, which are composed of a cluster of photogenic cells (photocytes) enclosed in a pigmented sheath and topped by a shutter-like structure and a lens. These organs produce a blue-green light that is believed to be involved in numerous functions including camouflage by counterillumination, intraspecific communication and aposematism. According to recent pharmacological studies, this functional versatility is partly achieved thanks to a complex photophore control mechanism, which involves hormones and neural agents. Current experimental data suggest (i) photocytes and the shutter to be the main targets of these pharmacological substances, and (ii) the presence of a link between the targets since the shutter appears to open while photocytes are glowing and inversely. Here, we hypothesize extraocular opsins to endowe photophores with their own light perception (as it was recently shown in a bioluminescent squid) and hence to provide the link between shutter opening and photocyte activity. The present work uses various techniques including transcriptome analysis western blotting, immunohistochemistry to detect the presence of opsins in the shark’s photogenic tissue. Results confirm the presence of extraocular opsins associated with the photophores, which likely supports their involvement in the bioluminescence control mechanism.
Bibliographic reference |
Claes, Julien ; Mallefet, Jérôme ; Delroisse, Jérôme ; Duchatelet, Laurent. Extraocular opsin detection in lanternshark (Etmopterus spinax) photogenic tissue .21th Benelux Congress of Zoology (Liège, Belgium, du 12/12/2014 au 13/12/2014). |
Permanent URL |
http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/153968 |