What is Noctiluca scintillans?
Q: What is Noctiluca scintillans?
A: Noctiluca scintillans is a free-living marine-dwelling species of dinoflagellate that shows bioluminescence when disturbed.
Q: How does Noctiluca scintillans produce bioluminescence?
A: Noctiluca scintillans produces bioluminescence in the cytoplasm through a luciferin-luciferase reaction in thousands of spherical organelles called scintillons.
Q: What is the milky seas effect?
A: The milky seas effect is produced when Noctiluca scintillans is disturbed and the bioluminescent reaction in its cytoplasm creates a milky appearance on the surface of the sea.
Q: What does Noctiluca scintillans eat?
A: Noctiluca scintillans is a heterotroph that engulfs its food through phagocytosis. It eats plankton, diatoms, other dinoflagellates, fish eggs, and bacteria. Its favourite food source is the diatom Thalassiosira.
Q: Do all species in the Noctiluca genus have scintillons?
A: No, nonluminescent populations in the genus Noctiluca lack scintillons.
Q: Does Noctiluca scintillans photosynthesize?
A: No, Noctiluca scintillans is a heterotroph and does not photosynthesize.
Q: Do symbiotic organisms live inside Noctiluca scintillans?
A: Yes, Noctiluca scintillans takes in tiny phytoplankton that live as endosymbionts and do photosynthesis for their larger host. Diatoms are often found in the vacuoles of Noctiluca.
