One of the characteristic features of many marine dinoflagellates is their bioluminescence, which lights up nighttime breaking waves or seawater sliced by a ship’s prow. While the internal biochemistry of light production by these microorganisms is well established, the manner by which fluid shear or mechanical forces trigger bioluminescence is still poorly understood. We report controlled measurements of the relation between mechanical stress and light production at the single cell level, using high-speed imaging of micropipette-held cells of the marine dinoflagellate Pyrocystis lunula subjected to localized fluid flows or direct indentation. We find a viscoelastic response in which light intensity depends on both the amplitude and rate of deformation, consistent with the action of stretch-activated ion channels. A phenomenological model captures the experimental observations.

中文翻译：

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在单细胞水平上的胁迫诱导的鞭毛藻生物发光。

许多海洋鞭毛藻的特征之一是它们的生物发光，这种发光可以照亮夜间的浪花或被船尖割下的海水。尽管这些微生物产生光的内部生物化学已经很好地建立了，但是流体剪切力或机械力触发生物发光的方式仍然知之甚少。我们报告使用机械成像的海洋鞭毛鞭毛囊藻的微管持有细胞的高速成像在单细胞水平上的机械应力和光产生之间的关系的受控测量承受局部流体流动或直接压痕。我们发现了一种粘弹性响应，其中光强度取决于变形的幅度和速率，与拉伸激活离子通道的作用一致。现象学模型捕获了实验观察结果。