1.
Curr Biol
; 28(16): R869-R870, 2018 08 20.
Artigo
em Inglês
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-30130504
RESUMO
Marimo are unusual, attractive and endangered spherical aggregations of the filamentous green macroalga Aegagropila linnaei (Figure 1A-E) [1]. Globally rare, marimo populations persist in cold freshwater lakes in Japan, Iceland and Ukraine. Marimo occupy both the lake bed and rise to the lake surface [2,3]. Here, we show that marimo buoyancy is conferred by bubbles arising from photosynthesis. We find that light-induced acquisition of buoyancy by marimo is circadian-regulated. We identify that there are circadian rhythms of photosynthesis in marimo, which might explain the circadian rhythm of buoyancy in response to light. This identifies a circadian-regulated buoyancy response in an intriguing and little-studied plant.