Abstract
MORE than 50 years ago, Mast suggested that positive phototaxis of Euglena is mediated by the shading action of the eyespot with respect to a “photoreceptor” situated near the base of the flagellum1. With the availability of a quantitative and reproducible method for measuring the rate of phototaxis2, this hypothesis has recently been given support by Tollin and myself3,4. We concluded that negative phototaxis occurs when the photoreceptor is not shaded from intense stimulating light. Bound and Tollin, using polarized actinic light, have shown that the pigment molecules in the eyespot are aligned with their long axes parallel to the long axis of the organism5.
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References
Mast, S. O., Light and the Behavior of Organisms, 109 (Wiley, New York, 1911).
Lindes, D., Diehn, B., and Tollin, G., Rev. Sci. Instrum., 36, 1721 (1966).
Diehn, B., and Tollin, G., Photochem. Photobiol., 5, 523 (1966).
Diehn, B. (in the press, 1969).
Bound, K. E., and Tollin, G., Nature, 216, 1043 (1967).
Weedon, B. C. L., in Chemistry and Biochemistry of Plant Pigments (edit. by Goodwin, T. W.), 90 (Academic Press, London and New York, 1965).
Batra, P. P., and Tollin, G., Biochim. Biophys. Acta, 79, 371 (1964).
Jurd, L., in The Chemistry of Flavonoid Compounds (edit. by Geissmann, T. A.), 107 (Pergamon, New York, 1962).
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DIEHN, B. Two Perpendicularly Oriented Pigment Systems involved in Phototaxis of Euglena. Nature 221, 366–367 (1969). https://doi.org/10.1038/221366a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/221366a0
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