ArticleJournal of the Royal Society, Interface2014
Photosymbiotic giant clams are transformers of solar flux.
Article in Journal of the Royal Society, Interface, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 26 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
26 citing papers in PubMed.
- Host and Environment Shape the Giant Clam-Associated Photosymbiont Community.Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- δEcology and evolution · 2026Article
- What is quantum biology?Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- Microbiome of the Boring Giant Clam Provides Insights Into Holobiont Resilience Under Coral Reef Environmental Stress.Environmental microbiology · 2025Article
- Physiology and metabolism of eukaryotic microalgae involved in aquatic photosymbioses.The New phytologist · 2025Review
- Heart cockle shells transmit sunlight to photosymbiotic algae using bundled fiber optic cables and condensing lenses.Nature communications · 2024Article
- The genome of a giant clam zooxanthella (Cladocopium infistulum) offers few clues to adaptation as an extracellular symbiont with high thermotolerance.BMC genomics · 2024Article
- Measuring Photonics in Photosynthesis: Combined Micro-Fourier Image Spectroscopy and Pulse Amplitude Modulated Chlorophyll Fluorimetry at the Micrometre-Scale.Biomimetics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Article
- Cytoklepty in the plankton: A host strategy to optimize the bioenergetic machinery of endosymbiotic algae.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2021Article
- Article
- Effects of elevated temperature andConservation physiology · 2021Article
- Article
- Shedding light: a phylotranscriptomic perspective illuminates the origin of photosymbiosis in marine bivalves.BMC evolutionary biology · 2020Article
- Review
- Adaptive Thermogenesis in Mice Is Enhanced by Opsin 3-Dependent Adipocyte Light Sensing.Cell reports · 2020Article
- Core-shell nanospheres behind the blue eyes of the bay scallopJournal of the Royal Society, Interface · 2019Article
- Functional nanomaterials to augment photosynthesis: evidence and considerations for their responsible use in agricultural applications.Interface focus · 2019Review
- Characterization of chloroplast iridescence inJournal of the Royal Society, Interface · 2018Article
- Living Light 2018: Conference Report.Biomimetics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2018Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
'Giant' tridacnid clams have evolved a three-dimensional, spatially efficient, photodamage-preventing system for photosymbiosis. We discovered that the mantle tissue of giant clams, which harbours symbiotic nutrition-providing microalgae, contains a layer of iridescent cells called iridocytes that serve to distribute photosynthetically productive wavelengths by lateral and forward-scattering of light into the tissue while back-reflecting non-productive wavelengths with a Bragg mirror. The wavelength- and angle-dependent scattering from the iridocytes is geometrically coupled to the vertically pillared microalgae, resulting in an even re-distribution of the incoming light along the sides of the pillars, thus enabling photosynthesis deep in the tissue. There is a physical analogy between the evolved function of the clam system and an electric transformer, which changes energy flux per area in a system while conserving total energy. At incident light levels found on shallow coral reefs, this arrangement may allow algae within the clam system to both efficiently use all incident solar energy and avoid the photodamage and efficiency losses due to non-photochemical quenching that occur in the reef-building coral photosymbiosis. Both intra-tissue radiometry and multiscale optical modelling support our interpretation of the system's photophysics. This highly evolved 'three-dimensional' biophotonic system suggests a strategy for more efficient, damage-resistant photovoltaic materials and more spatially efficient solar production of algal biofuels, foods and chemicals.
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