Fluorescence has previously been reported in fish, scorpions and birds, but never amongst species of amphibians.
Now the first fluorescent frogs have been discovered in South America. The green fluorescence is due to a compound found in the lymph and skin glands of the polka-dot tree frog (Hypsiboas punctatus)
The blue–green glow of the polka-dot tree frog was observed when they were under UV light and is linked to a new fluorescent compound, not previously known in nature. The compound absorbs light in the violet–ultraviolet region and emits blue–green light ( the reason we see them glowing in blue-green colour)
At twilight, the phenomenon enhances the frogs’ brightness and may help them communicate with each other.
‘We were not expecting this bio-fluorescence. It was an incredible surprise,’ says Lopes, a natural product chemist at the University of São Paulo in Brazil on this unexpected discovery
Time-of-flight mass spectrometry showed that the main fluorescent compound was the molecule Hyloin-L1. NMR revealed an N-methyl-dihydroisoquinolinone core.
‘This is very different from fluorophores found in other vertebrates, which are usually proteins or polyenic chains,’ says author Maria Gabriela Lagorio, a photochemist at the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, reports chemistryworld
'It would be interesting to investigate if [fluorescence] has a role in species recognition, or whether it facilitates the formation of couples,’ notes Bibiana Rojas, ecologist at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland.
The team has now begun examining the polka-dot's species. ‘We expect that this will be a more universal phenomenon with perhaps 100 or 200 species showing this property,’ says Lopes.
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