The chemical mimicking of the mechanical stimulation, photoinhibition, and recovery from photoinhibition of bioluminescence in marine dinoflagellate, Gonyaulax polyedra.

Mechanically stimulable bioluminescence and photoinhibition of sensitivity to mechanical stimulation in the marine dinoflagellate Gonyaulax polyedra can be mimicked by a number of cations, proportional to the logarithm of their external concentrations. The data are consistent with mechanical stimulability as a membrane depolarization resulting in an increase in H+ ions at bioluminescence sites and with photoinhibition as a hyperpolarization of the cell membrane.