biology

Oikopleura

Oikopleura is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Oikopleura rather than just read about it. In short: Oikopleura is a genus of tunicates in the class Appendicularia (larvaceans). It forms a mucus house every four hours at 20 degrees Celsius.

Key takeaways

Oikopleura belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Oikopleura to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Oikopleura from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Oikopleura is a genus of tunicates in the class Appendicularia (larvaceans). It forms a mucus house every four hours at 20 degrees Celsius. This house has a coarse mesh to keep out big particles, and a fine mesh that collects the small particles, down to the nanoplankton that includes (pelagic) bacteria. Abandoned mucus houses sink to the deep, collecting organic particles during their descent. They make an important contribution to marine snow, since Oikopleura is abundant and filters very actively, using powerful strokes of its tail. Its abundance is less obvious from preserved samples (that are usually analyzed) because the gelatinous body disappears in the preservation process while leaving hardly any trace. Species of Oikopleura have the smallest genomes in the animal kingdom, only about 75Mb. Oikopleura contains bioluminescent species. About half of Oikopleura species are bioluminescent.

Etymology The genus name comes from oikos (meaning "house") and pleura ("rib", or "side of the body"), referring to their ability to build a mucus house like other larvaceans.

Taxonomy

Phylogeny Oikopleura has been found to possibly be paraphyletic with respect to several other oikopleurid genera, namely: Folia, Stegosoma, Mesoikopleura, and Megalocercus. The genus might also harbour more diversity than thought, with species complexes like Oikopleura dioica comprising several reproductively incompatible clades despite consistent general morphology.

List of species Oikopleura (Coecaria) Lohmann, 1933 Oikopleura (Coecaria) fusiformis Fol, 1872 Oikopleura (Coecaria) fusiformis cornutogastra Aida, 1907 Oikopleura (Coecaria) gracilis Lohmann, 1896 Oikopleura (Coecaria) intermedia Lohmann, 1896 Oikopleura (Coecaria) longicauda (Vogt, 1854) Oikopleura (Vexillaria) Lohmann, 1933 Oikopleura (Vexillaria) albicans (Leuckart, 1853) Oikopleura (Vexillaria) caudaornata (Fenaux & Youngbluth, 1991) Oikopleura (Vexillaria) cophocerca (Gegenbaur, 1855) Oikopleura (Vexillaria) dioica Fol, 1872 Oikopleura (Vexillaria) gaussica Lohmann, 1905 Oikopleura (Vexillaria) gorskyi Flood, 2000 Oikopleura (Vexillaria) inflata (Fenaux & Youngbluth, 1991) Oikopleura (Vexillaria) labradoriensis Lohmann, 1892 Oikopleura (Vexillaria) parva Lohmann, 1896 Oikopleura (Vexillaria) rufescens Fol, 1872 Oikopleura (Vexillaria) vanhoeffeni Lohman, 1896 Oikopleura (Vexillaria) villafrancae Fenaux, 1992

Distribution The oikopleurids are distributed in the tropical waters of all oceans and seas of the globe, having been reported widely in the Caribbean Sea and the western coasts of the Atlantic Ocean.

Oikopleura dioica

A species of particular interest under this genus is the Oikopleura dioica, which is an anomaly among chordates. It has retained the fundamental body plan of the chordate; yet, it has lost the mechanism for retinoic acid signaling which operates during chordate development. The loss raises the question of the evolutionary constraints that have prevented similar changes in the other chordates. Oikopleura dioica hox genes are distributed in nine locations around the genome whereas other chordates have a cluster of hox genes. Of note, this is the first chordate among the eukaryotes found to have operons.

References

External links

Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS): Oikopleura Taxonomic Serial No.: 159668 National Center for Biotechnologu Information (NCFI): Oikopleura Taxonomy ID: 34763 Jellieszone: Oikopleura dioica Fol, 1872 : Larvacean Oikopleura Genome Browser Merriam-Webster: Oikopleura

Videos Youtube: Larvacea (Oikopleura dioica)

Photos Flickr: Oikopleura sp. in the house

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Oikopleura

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Oikopleura claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Oikopleura before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Oikopleura ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Oikopleura

In research: Oikopleura appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Oikopleura in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Oikopleura is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Bioluminescent animals, Oikopleuridae, Tunicate genera, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Oikopleura outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Ask Teacher Smith questions about this articleOpens your AI tutor with a question about “Oikopleura” →

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Oikopleura in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Oikopleura means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Oikopleura out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Oikopleura in simple terms?

Oikopleura is a genus of tunicates in the class Appendicularia (larvaceans). It forms a mucus house every four hours at 20 degrees Celsius.

Why does Oikopleura matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Oikopleura?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Oikopleura.