Heart cockle shells transmit sunlight to photosymbiotic algae using bundled fiber optic cables and condensing lenses | Nature Communications
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Many animals convergently evolved photosynthetic symbioses. In bivalves, giant clams (Cardiidae: Tridacninae) gape open to irradiate their symbionts, but heart cockles (Cardiidae: Fraginae) stay closed because sunlight passes through transparent windows in their shells. Here, we show that heart cockles (Corculum cardissa and spp.) use biophotonic adaptations to transmit sunlight for photosynthesis. Heart cockles transmit 11–62% of photosynthetically active radiation (mean = 31%) but only 5–28% of potentially harmful UV radiation (mean = 14%) to their symbionts. Beneath each window, microlenses condense light to penetrate more deeply into the symbiont-rich tissue. Within each window, aragonite forms narrow fibrous prisms perpendicular to the surface. These bundled “fiber optic cables” project images through the shell with a resolution of >100 lines/mm. Parameter sweeps show that the aragonite fibers’ size (~1 µm diameter), morphology (long fibers rather than plates), and orientation (along the optical c-axis) transmit more light than many other possible designs. Heart cockle shell windows are thus: (i) the first instance of fiber optic cable bundles in an organism to our knowledge; (ii) a second evolution, with epidermal cells in angiosperm plants, of condensing lenses for photosynthesis; and (iii) a photonic system that efficiently transmits useful light while protecting photosymbionts from UV radiation. Some bivalves have evolved photosynthetic symbioses. Here, the authors show that heart cockles transmit light through their upper shell to internal photosynthetic symbionts, using mineral fiber optic cables to maximize light transmission.

Summary from the 404 media newsletter

Heart cockles, a group of marine molluscs, contain little communities of algae in their shells as part of a symbiotic relationship; the algae get shelter and protection, and the cockles get algae-processed nutrients.

Now, scientists have discovered that cockle shells have a host of mind-boggling adaptations to keep these algae happy, including windows that offer “the first example of fiber optic cable bundles in a living creature.”

“We show that the fibrous prismatic crystals act like parallel bundles of fiber optic cables in the shell windows, not just transmitting light but projecting high-resolution images through the window,” that have “a resolution of >100 lines/mm,” said researchers led by Dakota McCoy of the University of Chicago.

From the article in the link above:

Fig. 1: Heart cockles (Corculum cardissa and Corculum spp.) are asymmetrical, photosymbiotic bivalves.

Fig. 2: Transparent windows allow heart cockle shells to transmit 11–62% of photosynthetically active radiation (mean = 31%) and significantly screen out UV radiation (mean = 14%, range = 5–28%).

  • @Zachariah
    1•1 month ago

    this warms the cockles of my heart