Nematocyte firing

Background

David Plachetzki discovered that phototransduction gene expression is associated with nematocyte cells. We hypothesized that light may modulate their firing, in addition to other sensory modalities which are already known to modulate firing. Dave and Caitlin Fong then developed experiments to test whether light modulates firing. They conducted Nematocyte Capture assays under different light intensities of blue light in Hydra, and found significant differences.

• Dave's original paper

Unpublished Experiments

• Katia visited for 6 months and conducted firing experiments in Haliplanella using combinations of light and mucin. Katia's thesis is here Katia Jindrich 2011.

• Federico visited for 6 months and