Nature’s Cutest Symbiosis:
The Bobtail Squid Film Guide
Student Handout
Hansi Parmar
NAME_______________________ 04/02/24
DATE_________________
This handout supplements the I Contain Multitudes film Nature’s Cutest Symbiosis: The Bobtail Squid.
1. The bioluminescent glow of the light organ helps the bobtail squid ______
C
a. camouflage itself on the sandy ocean floor.
b. signal and attract mates.
c. hide from predators and prey.
d. illuminate the ocean floor so it can locate prey.
2. The squid light organ has structural and functional similarities to an eye, including the ability to detect light.
Explain why it is important to the squid’s survival to be able to detect light as well as emit it.
When the squid emits light, it is able to camouflage itself against the underside of the ocean's
surface and its light rays. However, to match the light rays in the first place, it needs to detect
how strong the light is!
3. Mutualism is defined as a close, prolonged association of two or more species that is of benefit to all
participants. Explain how the relationship between the bobtail squid and Vibrio fischeri is an example of
mutualism. Defend your claim with evidence.
The relationship between bobtail squid and Vibrio fischeri is an example of mutualism, because
the bobtail squid provides the bacteria with food and a safe place to live while the bacteria, as
research in the video shows, helps the squid develop its camouflaging light organ!
4. If no Vibrio fischeri are present in the environment, what is most likely to happen during the development of
the bobtail squid? ______
C
a. The squid does not mature into an adult.
b. The light organ develops completely but does not glow.
c. The light organ does not develop completely.
d. The squid selects different prey as a source of food.
5. The bobtail squid and Vibrio fischeri serve as model organisms for studying cellular communication. Provide
at least two examples of communication either between squid and bacteria or within bacteria from the film.
In the film, after the bacteria first come into contact with the squid, they are pulled in by cilia that
only interact with bacteria size or smaller. Then, only Vibrio fischeri can adapt to special
signaling molecules released by the squid that guard against all other bacteria from entering.
Finally, the squid sends signaling molecules to the bacteria which tell it where to enter and
where to go down the duct.
Diversity of Organisms Published April 2018
www.BioInteractive.org Page 1 of 2
Film Guide
Nature’s Cutest Symbiosis: The Bobtail Squid Student Handout
6. Describe the experiment that proved the presence of Vibrio fischeri is required for the maturation of the
light organ.
In the experiment, the researchers observed two bobtail squids. One grew up with Vibrio
fischeri, while the other grew up without. While the former grew up to develop a fully functioning
light organ, it turned out that the latter could not fully develop its own light organ. It needed the
bacteria to develop it.
7. Within the light organ, bacteria are protected and nourished, and rapidly increase in number. At night, they
provide the light needed for counterillumination. But by dawn, as the squid prepares to hide in the sand for
the day, it ejects about 95% of the bacteria from the light organ.
a) Write a possible explanation for why eliminating 95% of the bacteria present in the light organ is
necessary.
Brutal. But maybe the squid does this because the bacteria cannot survive while the squid is
hiding in the sand, since it is no longer intaking any food for the bacteria (which have much
shorter lifespans). Or maybe the bacteria would grow so much that the squid would not longer
be able to hold it all.
b) Once the light organ is colonized, the squid no longer takes in Vibrio fischeri or other bacteria from the
environment. Explain how a sufficiently large population of bacteria can be maintained in the light organ
to produce light.
The bacteria have a very fast rate of reproduction. Therefore, during the night, there is always
enough bacteria maintained in the organ to produce enough light for the squid to survive. Then,
the squid removes 95% of the bacteria, therefore maintaining the bacteria so that it doesn't
overpopulate.
Diversity of Organisms Published April 2018
www.BioInteractive.org Page 2 of 2
