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Biofluorescence in chelicerates. (a) bark scorpion Lychas scutilus (Scorpiones: Buthidae); (b) harvestmen (Opiliones); (c) trapdoor spider Liphistius malayanus (Megalomorphae: Liphistiidae); (d) Gnathopalystes huntsman spider (Araneomorphae: Sparassidae); (e) Gasteracantha spiny orb-weaver spider (Araneomorphae: Araneidae). All animals from Singapore, under flash light/365 nm UVA torch. By Nicky Bay.
Contexts in source publication
Context 1
... groups are exclusively in class Arachnida and consist of mites (order Acariformes), ticks (Parasitiformes), harvestmen (Opiliones), camel spiders (Solifugae), hooded tickspiders (Ricinulei), pseudoscorpions (Pseudoscorpiones), scorpions (Scorpiones), whip scorpions (Uropygi), tailless whip scorpions (Amblypygi), and spiders (Araneae). Fluorescent species have been recorded in at least eight out of the 10 orders (Figure 3), and more are awaiting future research [41][42][43][44][45]. ...
Context 2
... are two suborders of spiders: Mygalomorphae (e.g., tarantulas) and Araneomorphae (modern spiders). Mygalomorphae resembles the ancient form in morphology: covered with tergites on the dorsum and fluoresces only from intersegmental membranes and appendage tips [54] (Figure 3). On the other hand, fluorescence occurs in many araneomorph families, especially in the highly derived Entelegynae [45,54] (Figure 3) family. ...
Context 3
... resembles the ancient form in morphology: covered with tergites on the dorsum and fluoresces only from intersegmental membranes and appendage tips [54] (Figure 3). On the other hand, fluorescence occurs in many araneomorph families, especially in the highly derived Entelegynae [45,54] (Figure 3) family. Most araneomorph spiders have lost their tergites, permitting UV light to penetrate the integument, triggering hemolymph fluorescence [51]. ...
Citations
... Reptiles have at least two different mechanisms to react to short wavelength light and produce fluorescence. The most common type of fluorescence in reptiles comes from the inherent fluorescence of bones (Bachman and Ellis, 1965), either by having transparent scales on specific outgrowths of underlying bones, as in the case of chameleons (Prötzel et al., 2018), or translucent skin, as in the case of several gecko species of the genera Hemidactylus (Mendyk, 2021;Maria et al., 2022), Cyrtodactylus (Jeng, 2019;Tah et al., 2020), and Chondrodactylus (Sloggett, 2018). Less common in reptiles is the fluorescence of skin iridophores, with only one reported case in the gecko Pachydactylus rangei (Prötzel et al., 2021). ...
... B iofluorescence occurs in living organisms when they absorb short wavelengths of light and then re-emit longer wavelengths (Lamb & Davis, 2020). This phenomenon is known in many different species and has been observed recently in some frogs and salamanders (Taboada et al., 2017;Lamb & Davis, 2020) and reptiles such as sea turtles (Gruber & Sparks, 2015), chameleons (Prötzel et al., 2018), sea snakes (Seiko & Terai, 2019) and to date in six gecko species; Chondrodactylus bibronii (Sloggett, 2018), Cyrtodactylus baluensis (Jeng, 2019), Cyrtodactylus quadrivirgatus (Top et al., 2020), Hemidactylus parvimaculatus (Mendyk, 2021), Kolekanus plumicaudus (Pinto et al., 2021) and Pachydactylus rangei (Prötzel et al., 2021). The latter is an interesting case as the flourescence arises from iridophores. ...
... had pink UV reflectance, mostly pronounced ventrally, further assessed by Hughes et al. 13 . Anecdotal observations of the rodents Melomys, Niviventer, and Rattus showed that some guard hairs reflected bright blue 8,9,14 . However, biofluorescence is still not well-documented, and we know very little about how common this trait actually is. ...
... Since the substantial work of Pine et al. 7 on mammals that can glow under UV light, reports are still scarce. Despite this scarcity, biofluorescence is present in all three major groups of mammals [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14] . These findings indicate that reflectance occurs throughout the visible spectrum, although more frequent at lower wavelengths (blue and violet). ...
Mammals are generally brown in colour, but recent publications are showing that they may not be as uniform as once assumed. Monotremes, marsupials, and a handful of eutherians reflect various colours when lit with UV light, mostly purple. Because of these still scarce records, we aimed to explore UV reflectance among rodent genera, the most diverse mammalian group, and the group of eutherians with the most common records of biofluorescence. Here we report structures like nails and quills reflected green, but for most genera, it was faded. However, Hystrix, Erethizon, and Ctenomys showed intense and contrasting green glow, while Chaetomys presented a vivid orange anogenital. The main available explanation of fluorescence in mammals relies on porphyrin. This explanation applies to the cases like Chaetomys, where specimens showed anogenital orange biofluorescence, but does not apply to the green biofluorescence we observed. In our sample, because the structures that reflected green were all keratinized, we have reasons to believe that biofluorescence results from keratinization and is a structurally-based colouration. However, not all spines/quills equally biofluoresced, so we cannot rule out other explanations. Since Rodentia is the most common mammalian group with reports on biofluorescence, this trait likely serves various functions that match the species diversity of this group.
... Ultraviolet-induced photoluminescence (UV-PL) has been described in the external organs of plants (Lagorio et al. 2015), "invertebrates" (Jeng 2019), and in numerous vertebrates, including "fishes," lissamphibians, squamates, birds, and mammals (Prötzel et al. 2021). As far as mammals are concerned, only a handful of observations have been reported, notably in the platypus (Anich et al. 2021), in marsupials including opossums (Meisner 1983;Pine et al. 1985;Tumlison & Tumlison 2021) and bandicoots (Reinhold 2021), in weasels (Latham 1953;Tumlison & Tumlison 2021), in rodents including flying squirrels (Kohler et al. 2019), springhares (Olson et al. 2021), and pocket gophers (Pynne et al. 2021), and in hedgehogs (Derrien & Turchini 1925;Hamchand et al. 2021;Silpa et al. 2021). ...
Examples of photoluminescence (PL) are being reported with increasing frequency in a wide range of organisms from diverse ecosystems. However, the chemical basis of this PL remains poorly defined, and our understanding of its potential ecological function is still superficial. Among mammals, recent analyses have identified free-base por-phyrins as the compounds responsible for the reddish ultraviolet-induced photoluminescence (UV-PL) observed in the pelage of springhares and hedgehogs. However, the localization of the pigments within the hair largely remains to be determined. Here, we use photoluminescence multispectral imaging emission and excitation spec-troscopy to detect, map, and characterize porphyrinic compounds in skin appendages in situ. We also document new cases of mammalian UV-PL caused by free-base porphyrins in distantly related species. Spatial distribution of the UV-PL is strongly suggestive of an endogenous origin of the porphyrinic compounds. We argue that reddish UV-PL is predominantly observed in crepuscular and nocturnal mammals because porphyrins are photodegradable. Consequently , this phenomenon may not have a specific function in intra-or interspecific communication but rather represents a byproduct of potentially widespread physiological processes.
... There is substantial research on the occurrence of fluorescence in plants [2] and invertebrates [3,4]. There is also increasing evidence to suggest that many vertebrates have fluorescent pigments, including birds [5][6][7], amphibians [8], reptiles [9,10], fish [11] and mammals [1,[12][13][14][15]. Several hypotheses aim to explain an ecological role of fluorescence in vertebrates. ...
... Fluorescence has now been observed in all major taxonomic clades of mammals. Within eutherians, fluorescence has been observed in the fur of all extant species of North American flying squirrel (Glaucomys spp.) [1], nocturnal springhares (Pedetidae spp.) [12], the Coxxings white-bellied rat (Niviventer coninga), the scales of the Chinese pangolin (Manis pentadactyla) [14], and the quills of European hedgehogs (Erinaceus europaeus) [37]. The fur of monotremes such as the platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus) is also fluorescent [15]. ...
While an array of taxa are capable of producing fluorescent pigments, fluorescence in mammals is a novel and poorly understood phenomenon. A first step towards understanding the potential adaptive functions of fluorescence in mammals is to develop an understanding of fluorescent compounds, or fluorophores, that are present in fluorescent tissue. Here we use Fourier transform-ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry (FT-ICR MS) of flying squirrel fur known to fluoresce under ultraviolet (UV) light to identify potentially fluorescent compounds in squirrel fur. All of the potentially fluorescent compounds we identified were either present in non-fluorescent fur or were not present in all species of fluorescent flying squirrel. Therefore, we suggest that the compounds responsible for fluorescence in flying squirrels may also be present in non-fluorescent mammal fur. Some currently unexplained factor likely leads to excitation of fluorophores in flying squirrel fur. A recently suggested hypothesis that fluorescence in mammals is widely caused by porphyrins is consistent with our findings.
... Biofluorescence, the absorption of photons by biological tissues that are then reemitted at longer lower-energy wavelengths, occurs naturally in a broad range of organisms. In recent years, biofluorescence in tetrapods has emerged as an increasingly common phenomenon, with many examples documented in mammals (Jeng 2019;Kohler et al. 2019;Anich et al. 2020), birds (Pearn et al. 2003;McGraw et al. 2007; Barreira et al. 2012;Camacho et al. 2019;Wilkinson et al. 2019), amphibians (Nowogrodzki 2017;Taboada et al. 2017a,b;Deschepper et al. 2018;Goutte et al. 2019;Gray 2019;Thompson et al. 2019; Lamb and Davis 2020; Whitcher 2020) and reptiles (Hulse 1971;Gruber and Sparks 2015;Prötzel et al. 2018Prötzel et al. , 2021Sloggett 2018;Seiko and Terai 2019;Eipper et al. 2020;Eto 2020;Top et al. 2020;Mendyk 2021). The extent of this phenomenon in reptiles and its ecological and evolutionary underpinnings, however, remain poorly studied, though various fluorescent emission patterns have been identified in reptiles including the carapaces of sea turtles (Gruber and Sparks 2015), bony cranial protuberances of lizards, (Prötzel et al. 2018), skeletal elements of geckos (Sloggett 2018;Top et al. 2020), and the body scalation of various snakes and lizards (Hulse 1971;Seiko and Terai 2019;Eipper et al. 2020;Eto 2020;Prötzel et al. 2021). ...
... Finally, our findings, together with other recent discoveries of biofluorescence in reptiles (Gruber and Sparks 2015;Prötzel et al. 2018Prötzel et al. , 2021Sloggett 2018;Seiko and Terai 2019;Eipper et al. 2020;Eto 2020) and other tetrapods (e.g., Nowogrodzki 2017; Taboada et al. 2017a,b;Camacho et al. 2019;Jeng 2019;Kohler et al. 2019;Wilkinson et al. 2019;Anich et al. 2020) call attention to the limitations of our own sensory modalities when studying and interpreting the ecology, behavior and functional morphology of other species (e.g., Martin 2012). The fact that tail fluorescence has gone largely undetected for so long in pitvipers including rattlesnakes, a group that has been intensively kept and studied in captivity over two centuries (Bennett 1829;Harlan 1830;Mitchell 1860;Murphy 2017), raises an important question: what other key biological attributes of species may we be missing due to our visual biases? ...
Tail biofluorescence is described across multiple genera of pitvipers (Crotalinae) including the rattles of rattlesnakes. Several possible explanations for the ecological relevance of the character are discussed.
... In nature, around 30 different bioluminescent systems are known, of which nine have been well-studied for their luminous reaction mechanisms (Kaskova et al. 2016). In connection with the phenomenon of bioluminescence, various processes were studied and analysed such as, for instance, the circadian rhythms in dinoflagellates (Hastings 2013), in bioluminescent fungi (Oliveira et al. 2015) or in New Zealand glowworms (Ohba and Meyer-Rochow 2005;Merritt and Aotani 2008;Merritt et al. 2012) and, furthermore, the ATP-dependent luminescence system in fireflies summarised by Jeng (2019), quorum sensing in the symbiotic relationship between the squid Euprymna scolopes and Aliivibrio fischeri (Nyholm and McFall-Ngai 2004) as well as the phylogenetic relationships of four Vibrio species (Urbanczyk et al. 2007(Urbanczyk et al. , 2008. ...
The term bioluminescence refers to a conspicuous light emission displayed by numerous aquatic and terrestrial organisms. This phenomenon has so far not been observed in several taxonomic groups like archaea, protista, platyhelminthes, chelicerata, cephalochordata, amphibians, reptiles, birds, plants, and mammals. However, some luminescent bacteria, fungi and microalgae like dinoflagellates are known. Bioluminescence has become a powerful biological tool and revolutionized several medical, physiological and biotechnological approaches, such as, for example, the study of metabolic pathways of bacteria to mammals. In 2008 O. Shimomura, M. Chalfie and R. Tsien were awarded the Chemistry Nobel prize for their discovery of the protein GFP, which is co-expressed with aequorin, the calcium-activated photoprotein involved in the bioluminescence reaction of the jellyfish Aequorea victoria. Some organisms are known to display bioluminescence only under certain kinds of stimulation and stress conditions; others appear to produce their light without prior stimulation either continuously or intermittently. Despite the discovery of more than 700 genera of bioluminescent organisms from marine, terrestrial, and freshwater environments, there is often still insufficient knowledge about their bioluminescence emission patterns under natural and stress conditions. Furthermore, there are no detailed reviews on stimulation techniques that can be used to test whether organisms previously not having been recognized to be luminescent are luminescent or not. This paper reviews various stimulants, such as chemical, mechanical, photic, thermal, magnetic and electrical ones, used in tests to elicit the emission of light in known bioluminescent organisms. This account should help researchers to extend their investigations to identify organisms hitherto not deemed to be luminescent.
... In nature, around 30 different bioluminescent systems are known, of which nine have been well-studied for their luminous reaction mechanisms (Kaskova et al. 2016). In connection with the phenomenon of bioluminescence, various processes were studied and analysed such as, for instance, the circadian rhythms in dinoflagellates (Hastings 2013), in bioluminescent fungi (Oliveira et al. 2015) or in New Zealand glowworms (Ohba and Meyer-Rochow 2005;Merritt and Aotani 2008;Merritt et al. 2012) and, furthermore, the ATP-dependent luminescence system in fireflies summarised by Jeng (2019), quorum sensing in the symbiotic relationship between the squid Euprymna scolopes and Aliivibrio fischeri (Nyholm and McFall-Ngai 2004) as well as the phylogenetic relationships of four Vibrio species (Urbanczyk et al. 2007(Urbanczyk et al. , 2008. ...
The term bioluminescence refers to a conspicuous light emission displayed by numerous aquatic and terrestrial organisms. This phenomenon has so far not been observed in several taxonomic groups like archaea, protista, platyhelminthes, chelicerata, cephalochordata, amphibians, reptiles, birds, plants, and mammals. However, some luminescent bacteria, fungi and microalgae like dinoflagellates are known. Bioluminescence has become a powerful biological tool and revolutionized several medical, physiological and biotechnological approaches, such as, for example, the study of metabolic pathways of bacteria to mammals. In 2008 O. Shimomura, M. Chalfie and R. Tsien were awarded the Chemistry Nobel prize for their discovery of the protein GFP, which is co-expressed with aequorin, the calcium-activated photoprotein involved in the bioluminescence reaction of the jellyfish Aequorea victoria. Some organisms are known to display bioluminescence only under certain kinds of stimulation and stress conditions; others appear to produce their light without prior stimulation either continuously or intermittently. Despite the discovery of more than 700 genera of bioluminescent organisms from marine, terrestrial, and freshwater environments, there is often still insufficient knowledge about their bioluminescence emission patterns under natural and stress conditions. Furthermore, there are no detailed reviews on stimulation techniques that can be used to test whether organisms previously not having been recognized to be luminescent are luminescent or not. This paper reviews various stimulants, such as chemical, mechanical, photic, thermal, magnetic and electrical ones, used in tests to elicit the emission of light in known bioluminescent organisms. This account should help researchers to extend their investigations to identify organisms hitherto not deemed to be luminescent.
... Ultraviolet-induced photoluminescence (UV-PL) has been described in the external organs of plants (Lagorio, Cordon & Iriel 2015), 'invertebrates' (Jeng 2019) and in numerous vertebrates including ' shes', lissamphibians, squamates, birds, and mammals (Prötzel et al. 2021). As far as mammals are concerned, only a handful of observations have been reported, notably in the platypus (Anich et al. 2021), in marsupials including opossums (Meisner 1983;Pine et al. 1985;Tumlison & Tumlison 2021) and bandicoots (Reinhold 2021), in weasels (Latham 1953;Tumlison & Tumlison 2021), in rodents including ying squirrels (Kohler et al. 2019), springhares (Olson et al. 2021) and pocket gophers (Pynne et al. 2021), and in hedgehogs (Hamchand et al. 2021;Mclaughlin, Music & Strunk 2021;Derrien & Turchini 1925). ...
Examples of photoluminescence (PL) are being reported with increasing frequency in a wide range of organisms from diverse ecosystems. However, the chemical basis of this PL remains poorly defined, and our understanding of its potential ecological function is still superficial. Amongst mammals, recent analyses have identified free-base porphyrins as the compounds responsible for the reddish ultraviolet-induced photoluminescence (UV-PL) observed in the pelage of springhares and hedgehogs. However, the localization of the pigments within the hair largely remains to be determined. Here we use photoluminescence multispectral imaging emission and excitation spectroscopy to detect, map and characterize porphyrinic compounds in skin appendages in situ. We also document new cases of mammalian UV-PL caused by free-base porphyrins in distantly related species. Spatial distribution of the UV-PL is strongly suggestive of an endogenous origin of the porphyrinic compounds. We argue that reddish UV-PL is predominantly observed in crepuscular and nocturnal mammals because porphyrins are photodegradable. Consequently, this phenomenon may not have a specific function in intra- or interspecific communication but rather represents a byproduct of potentially widespread physiological processes.
Co-first authors: Séverine Toussaint and Jasper Ponstein
... nocturnal-crepuscular [19][20][21][22] and UV-sensitive 7,39 species, and UV-color vision appears to be ecologically important to many nocturnal-crepuscular mammals 1 . While we cannot determine why Pedetidae exhibits biofluorescence, our observations add further support for the hypothesis that biofluorescence and UV wavelengths of light may be ecologically important for nocturnal-crepuscular mammals 1,9,19,22 . Our observations also suggest that biofluorescence may be more broadly distributed throughout Mammalia than previously thought 22 . ...
Biofluorescence has been detected in several nocturnal-crepuscular organisms from invertebrates to birds and mammals. Biofluorescence in mammals has been detected across the phylogeny, including the monotreme duck-billed platypus (Ornithorhyncus anatinus), marsupial opossums (Didelphidae), and New World placental flying squirrels (Gluacomys spp.). Here, we document vivid biofluorescence of springhare (Pedetidae) in both museum specimens and captive individuals—the first documented biofluorescence of an Old World placental mammal. We explore the variation in biofluorescence across our sample and characterize its physical and chemical properties. The striking visual patterning and intensity of color shift was unique relative to biofluorescence found in other mammals. We establish that biofluorescence in springhare likely originates within the cuticle of the hair fiber and emanates, at least partially, from several fluorescent porphyrins and potentially one unassigned molecule absent from our standard porphyrin mixture. This discovery further supports the hypothesis that biofluorescence may be ecologically important for nocturnal-crepuscular mammals and suggests that it may be more broadly distributed throughout Mammalia than previously thought.
