Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 2, 2026

Obtaining Hemocytes from the Hawaiian Bobtail Squid Euprymna scolopes and Observing their Adherence to Symbiotic and Non-Symbiotic Bacteria
Published on: February 11, 2010
Thermal stress disrupts symbiotic fluid dynamics in bobtail squid
Stephen Williams1, Kyra Alexa Ruiz1, Elizabeth Heath-Heckman2,3
1Applied Mathematics, University of California Merced , Merced, CA, USA.
None:
The effect of thermal stress on beneficial symbiosis, in the face of rapid climate change, remains poorly understood. We investigate this using the model system, Euprymna scolopes (Es), the Hawaiian bobtail squid, and its bioluminescent symbiont, Vibrio fischeri (Vf), which enables the squid to camouflage itself through counter-illumination. Successful colonization of the squid by Vf must occur hours after hatching and is mediated by fluid flow due to respiration within the squid mantle cavity. To study this process, we develop a mathematical model using the method of regularized stokeslets to simulate the flow and resulting bacterial trajectories within the squid. We explore how thermal stress, mediated by physiological changes in respiration, ciliary dynamics and internal geometry, affects early colonization by analysing the time bacteria spend in regions crucial to the establishment of symbioses in these simulations. A variance-based sensitivity analysis of physiologically relevant parameters on these metrics demonstrated that changes in the breath cycle significantly affect and reduce the time bacteria spend in the critical zone within the squid, hindering colonization.
Related Concept Videos
Thermal Stress
Membrane Fluidity
Responses to Salt Stress
Microbial Mats
Osmoregulation in Fishes
Marine Microbial Ecology

