Aequorea victoria
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| Aequorea victoria (Murbach and Shearer, 1902) |
Aequorea victoria, also called the crystal jelly, is a bioluminescent jellyfish that is found off the west coast of North America.
This jellyfish is capable of producing flashes of blue light by a quick release of Ca2+ which interacts with the photoprotein aequorin. The blue light produced is in turn transduced to green by the now famous green fluorescent protein (GFP). Both aequorin and GFP are important tools used in biological research. Aequorea victoria is a seasonal jellyfish. They completely disappear from the water in autumn. Only small polyp colonies remain on the sea floor. In spring, they reappear and start the cycle again.
The calcium illuminating properties of aequorin were first identified by Christopher Ashley et al in San Francisco (1969). Thousands of jelly fish had to be sacrificed.
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