Definition of phototaxis in English:
phototaxis
noun ˌfəʊtəʊˈtaksɪsˌfōdōˈtaksəs
mass nounBiology The bodily movement of a motile organism in response to light, either towards the source of light (positive phototaxis) or away from it (negative phototaxis).
Compare with phototropism
Example sentencesExamples
- Far-red or red background lights irradiated vertically from above drastically inhibited phototaxis toward red light or far-red light, respectively.
- Wild-type flies showing normal phototaxis consistently moved towards the light to end up in the last tube by the end of the trial.
- Namely, two rhodopsins that absorb in different spectral bands and optimally function at different intensity ranges generate two photoreceptor currents that control flagella movement during phototaxis.
- In 1883, he demonstrated that phototaxis of other protozoans toward Euglena was due to light-induced production of oxygen in the latter.
- They possess a common chromophore, retinal, that upon absorption of light isomerizes and thereby triggers biological functions ranging from light energy conversion to phototaxis and vision.
Derivatives
adjective
Biology Nurses and foragers also differ in phototactic behaviour where nurses are negatively phototactic (avoid light) and foragers are positively phototactic (attracted to light).
Example sentencesExamples
- These unicellular photoreceptors contain both the putative photosensory microvilli and the shielding pigment granules within the same cell, which also carries a motor cilium that enables the larva to show phototactic behavior.
- Lebert and Hader observed a curious phototactic phenomenon in eyeless mutants of Euglena, i.e. it swam perpendicularly with respect to the incident light, namely, diaphototaxis.
- From a screen of 18,500 mutagenized flies, 171 phototactic mutants were recovered of which 15 appear to be specifically defective in synaptic transmission on the basis of the results of electroretinogram recordings.
- Most unicellular flagellate algae are phototactic, i.e., capable of orientation with respect to the direction of light.