Illuminating luciferin bioluminescence in dinoflagellates

About the project

Noctiluca scintillans (the sea sparkle) and other dinoflagellates are responsible for most bioluminescence in European marine environments and familiar blue-glow blooms. The ecological role of dinoflagellate bioluminescence is currently not clear, and its apparent importance in marine food webs highlights the need to understand its environmental regulation and molecular underpinning. Fundamental gaps in knowledge include how bioluminescence varies within natural populations and how dinoflagellates produce luciferin.

We hypothesize that:

Three innovative approaches will be used:

Identifying new bioluminescence-associated genes by their unique day/night expression profile, specifically oxygenases that could synthesize dinoflagellate luciferin in a single catalytic step, followed by their functional assessment after heterologous expression.

For full project details visit the Inspire project page .

• Bioluminescence intensity and gene expression vary among individual cells and are circadian-regulated.
• Luciferin is generated by an oxygenase enzyme from a chlorophyll-related molecule.
• The investigation of these issues will help illuminate the environmental role of bioluminescence and accelerate the industrial use of dinoflagellate luciferin.
• Studying non-photosynthetic Noctiluca which, unlike other bioluminescent dinoflagellates, lacks endogenous photosynthetic chlorophylls and has non-bioluminescent strains, both advantages when analyzing luciferin tetrapyrroles.
• Single-cell sequencing to profile expression and circadian regulation of bioluminescence genes in natural populations on a cell-by-cell basis.

Supervisors

• Mr Jan Janouskovec (University of Southampton)
• Dr John Gittins (University of Southampton)
• Dr Kenneth Mertens (Institut Français de Recherche pour l'Exploitation de la Mer)
• Dr Glen Wheeler (Marine Biological Association)

Dr Jan Janouskovec PhD

• Evolutionary cell biology
• Cellular metabolism and photosynthesis
• Parasitism and symbiosis

Entry requirements

A 2:1 honours degree, or its international equivalent , in one of these subjects:

• any Earth or environmental science discipline
• biology
• oceanography
• marine science

Fees and funding

INSPIRE studentships are funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC, part of UK Research and Innovation, UKRI). The stipend is in line with UKRI standard levels, including the recent cost of living increase.

All studentships are fully funded for 3.5 years.

How to apply

To make an application, visit the how to apply section of the INSPIRE website .

Contact us

For questions about the project, contact Dr Jan Janouskovec.

Email: J.Janouskovec@soton.ac.uk

For questions about the application process, contact the graduate school office.

Email: gsnocs@soton.ac.uk

Research areas