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First published online April 23, 2004
Journal of Experimental Biology 207, 1941-1951 (2004)
Published by The Company of Biologists 2004
doi: 10.1242/jeb.00973

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Hydrodynamic stimulation of dinoflagellate bioluminescence: a computational and experimental study

Michael I. Latz^1,*, Andrew R. Juhl^1,, Abdel M. Ahmed², Said E. Elghobashi² and Jim Rohr^1,3

¹ Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92093-0202, USA
² Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697, USA
³ SSC San Diego, 53560 Hull Street, D363, San Diego, CA 92152, USA

^* Author for correspondence (e-mail: mlatz{at}ucsd.edu)

Accepted 11 March 2004

Dinoflagellate bioluminescence provides a near-instantaneous reporter of cell response to flow. Although both fluid shear stress and acceleration are thought to be stimulatory, previous studies have used flow fields dominated by shear. In the present study, computational and experimental approaches were used to assess the relative contributions to bioluminescence stimulation of shear stress and acceleration in a laminar converging nozzle. This flow field is characterized by separate regions of pronounced acceleration away from the walls, and shear along the wall. Bioluminescence of the dinoflagellates Lingulodinium polyedrum and Ceratocorys horrida, chosen because of their previously characterized different flow sensitivities, was imaged with a low-light video system. Numerical simulations were used to calculate the position of stimulated cells and the levels of acceleration and shear stress at these positions. Cells were stimulated at the nozzle throat within the wall boundary layer where, for that downstream position, shear stress was relatively high and acceleration relatively low. Cells of C. horrida were always stimulated significantly higher in the flow field than cells of L. polyedrum and at lower flow rates, consistent with their greater flow sensitivity. For both species, shear stress levels at the position of stimulated cells were similar to but slightly greater than previously determined response thresholds using independent flow fields. L. polyedrum did not respond in conditions where acceleration was as high as 20 g. These results indicate that shear stress, rather than acceleration, was the stimulatory component of flow. Thus, even in conditions of high acceleration, dinoflagellate bioluminescence is an effective marker of shear stress.

Key words: acceleration, bioluminescence, Ceratocorys, dinoflagellate, flow, Lingulodinium, numerical simulation, shear

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This article has been cited by other articles:

				M. I. Latz, M. Bovard, V. VanDelinder, E. Segre, J. Rohr, and A. Groisman Bioluminescent response of individual dinoflagellate cells to hydrodynamic stress measured with millisecond resolution in a microfluidic device J. Exp. Biol., September 1, 2008; 211(17): 2865 - 2875. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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