This wild African cat has adapted to life in a big city. Animals Wild Cities This wild African cat has adapted to life in a big city Caracals have learned to hunt around the urban edges of Cape Town, though the predator faces many threats, such as getting hit by cars. India bets its energy future on solar—in ways both small and big.
Environment Planet Possible India bets its energy future on solar—in ways both small and big Grassroots efforts are bringing solar panels to rural villages without electricity, while massive solar arrays are being built across the country. Go Further. Animals Climate change is shrinking many Amazonian birds. Animals Wild Cities This wild African cat has adapted to life in a big city. Animals This frog mysteriously re-evolved a full set of teeth. Animals Wild Cities Wild parakeets have taken a liking to London.
Animals Wild Cities Morocco has 3 million stray dogs. Meet the people trying to help. Environment COP26 nears conclusion with mixed signals and frustration. Environment Planet Possible India bets its energy future on solar—in ways both small and big. Environment As the EU targets emissions cuts, this country has a coal problem.
Researchers fairly recently learned that nitric oxide gas the same gas that is produced by taking the drug Viagra plays a critical role in firefly flash control. In this situation, oxygen that enters the light organ is bound to the surface of the cell's energy-producing organelles, called the mitrochondria, and is thereby not available for transport further within the light organ.
The presence of nitric oxide, which binds to the mitochondria, allows oxygen to flow into the light organ where it combines with the other chemicals needed to produce the bioluminescent reaction. Because nitric oxide breaks down very quickly, as soon as the chemical is no longer being produced, the oxygen molecules are again trapped by the mitochondria and are not available for the production of light.
Fireflies appear to light up for a variety of reasons. The larvae produce short glows and are primarily active at night, even though many species are subterranean or semi-aquatic. Fireflies produce defensive steroids in their bodies that make them unpalatable to predators. Larvae use their glows as warning displays to communicate their distastefulness. As adults, many fireflies have flash patterns unique to their species and use them to identify other members of their species as well as to discriminate between members of the opposite sex.
Several studies have shown that female fireflies choose mates depending upon specific male flash pattern characteristics. The final reason that fireflies glow is to deter predators. Fireflies are filled with chemicals called lucibufagins, which is hard to say and even harder to swallow — they taste terrible. When a predator tastes a firefly, it learns to associate the glow with the bad taste. There you have it, folks. Then again, that makes it kind of magical, right?
Check out the video below of fireflies —accompanied by cricket song — in a soybean field. Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Use precise geolocation data. Select personalised content. Create a personalised content profile. Luciferase is a valuable enzyme for biomedical research, particularly as a marker of gene expression. Researchers can literally see a gene at work or the presence of a bacterium when the luciferase is tagged.
Luciferase has been widely used to help identify food contamination by bacteria. Because of its value as a research tool, luciferase is in high demand by laboratories, and the commercial harvest of live fireflies negatively affected firefly populations in some areas.
However, scientists successfully cloned the luciferase gene of one firefly species, Photinus pyralis , in , enabling the large-scale production of synthetic luciferase. Unfortunately, some chemical companies still extract luciferase from fireflies rather than produce and sell the synthetic version. This has effectively put a bounty on the heads of fireflies in some regions, where people are encouraged to collect them by the thousands during the peak of their summer mating season.
In a single Tennessee county in , people eager to cash in on one company's demand for fireflies captured and froze approximately 40, males. Computer modeling by one research team suggests this level of harvest may be unsustainable for such a firefly population.
With the availability of synthetic luciferase today, such harvests of fireflies for profit are entirely unnecessary.
Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Use precise geolocation data. Select personalised content. Create a personalised content profile. Measure ad performance. Select basic ads. Create a personalised ads profile. Select personalised ads.
0コメント