Institute of Innovative Research, 
Tokyo Institute of Technology.

2016.05.16

Press Release

Shedding light on phototactic behavior of green algae

Scientists at Tokyo Institute of Technology and colleagues report that optical shielding by the eyespot pigments in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, a unicellular green alga, determines the direction of their movement relative to light sources, and that the cell body behaves as a convex lens to focus and condense incident light.