Contribution of the cytoskeleton to mechanosensitivity reported by dinoflagellate bioluminescence.

The cytoskeleton is crucial to cell mechanics and sensing the extracellular physical environment. The objective of this study was to examine the role of the cortical cytoskeleton in mechanosensitivity in a unicellular protist, the marine dinoflagellate Lingulodinium polyedra, using its intrinsic bioluminescence as a rapid reporter of mechanotransduction. Pharmacological treatments resolved effects due to immediate cytoskeleton disruption from those due to cytoskeletal remodeling during the light to dark phase transition.

The biocomposite tube of a chaetopterid marine worm constructed with highly-controlled orientation of nanofilaments.

The ultrastructure of the self-constructed tube housing of the bioluminescent marine worm, Chaetopterus sp. reveals that the bio-nanocomposite tube comprises of multiple non-woven plies of multi-axially oriented organic nanofilaments (ø 50-1100nm) cemented together by an unstructured organic matrix binder. The thin-walled, impermeable tubes are bio-inspirational for conventional pipe technology.

Housing tubes from the marine worm Chaetopterus sp.: biomaterials with exceptionally broad thermomechanical properties.

The housing tube material of the marine worm Chaetopterus sp. exhibits thermal stability up to 250°C, similar to other biological materials such as mulberry silkworm cocoons. Interestingly, however, dynamic mechanical thermal analysis conducted in both air and water elucidated the lack of a glass transition in the organic tube wall material.

Infrared spectroscopic determination of the degree of charge transfer in complexes of TCNE with methyl-substituted benzenes.

The position of the CN stretching frequency in infrared spectra of tetracyanoethylene (TCNE) complexed with methyl-substituted benzenes is used to determine the fraction of charge transferred from the electron donor to the acceptor.