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Importance of Calcium and Magnesium Ions in Phototaxis of Motile Green Algæ

Abstract

DURING the past year phototactic behaviour has been studied in a number of motile green algæ and dinoflagellates at this laboratory and at Hopkins Marine Station of Stanford University, California1. These flagellates swim either towards the light or away from it, depending upon their recent past environment in ways that are far from being understood. When any of the organisms examined was transferred to fresh medium, a negative phototaxis resulted immediately. The direction of response was independent of light intensity. When the organisms were kept in the same medium for some time, from hours to days, their reaction became positive, irrespective of the light intensity.

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References

  1. Halldal, P., Carnegie Inst. of Wash. Year Book No. 55 (1956).

  2. Links, J., thesis, State University, Leyden, Holland.

  3. Needham, D. M., “Adv. in Enzymol.”, 13, 151 (1952).

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HALLDAL, P. Importance of Calcium and Magnesium Ions in Phototaxis of Motile Green Algæ. Nature 179, 215–216 (1957). https://doi.org/10.1038/179215b0

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