Blood is a body fluid in the circulatory system of humans and other vertebrates that delivers necessary substances such as nutrients and oxygen to the cells, and transports metabolic waste products away from those same cells. Blood in the circulatory system is also known as peripheral blood, and the blood cells it carries, peripheral blood cells.
Hemoglobin is a protein containing iron that facilitates the transport of oxygen in red blood cells. Almost all vertebrates contain hemoglobin, with the exception of the fish family Channichthyidae and the tissues of some invertebrate animals. Hemoglobin in the blood carries oxygen from the respiratory organs to the other tissues of the body, where it releases the oxygen to enable aerobic respiration which powers the animal's metabolism. A healthy human has 12 to 20 grams of hemoglobin in every 100 mL of blood. Hemoglobin is a metalloprotein, a chromoprotein, and globulin.
A vacuole is a membrane-bound organelle which is present in plant and fungal cells and some protist, animal, and bacterial cells. Vacuoles are essentially enclosed compartments which are filled with water containing inorganic and organic molecules including enzymes in solution, though in certain cases they may contain solids which have been engulfed. Vacuoles are formed by the fusion of multiple membrane vesicles and are effectively just larger forms of these. The organelle has no basic shape or size; its structure varies according to the requirements of the cell.
Vanadium is a chemical element; it has symbol V and atomic number 23. It is a hard, silvery-grey, malleable transition metal. The elemental metal is rarely found in nature, but once isolated artificially, the formation of an oxide layer (passivation) somewhat stabilizes the free metal against further oxidation.
Thiomargarita namibiensis is a Gram-negative, facultative anaerobic, coccoid bacterium found in the ocean sediments of the continental shelf of Namibia. It is the second largest bacterium ever discovered, 0.1–0.3 mm (100–300 μm) in diameter on average, but sometimes attaining 0.75 mm (750 μm). Cells of Thiomargarita namibiensis are large enough to be visible to the naked eye. The previously largest known bacterium was Epulopiscium fishelsoni, at 0.5mm long. Thiomargarita magnifica, described in 2022, is larger. Thiomargarita namibiensis have large vacuoles for their chemolithotrophic metabolism. The vacuoles contribute to their gigantism, allowing them to store nutrients for asexual reproduction of their complex genome.
Hemerythrin (also spelled haemerythrin; Ancient Greek: αἷμα, romanized: haîma, lit. 'blood', Ancient Greek: ἐρυθρός, romanized: erythrós, lit. 'red') is an oligomeric protein responsible for oxygen (O2) transport in the marine invertebrate phyla of sipunculids, priapulids, brachiopods, and in a single annelid worm genus, Magelona. Myohemerythrin is a monomeric O2-binding protein found in the muscles of marine invertebrates. Hemerythrin and myohemerythrin are essentially colorless when deoxygenated, but turn a violet-pink in the oxygenated state.
Hemolymph, or haemolymph, is a fluid, analogous to the blood in vertebrates, that circulates in the interior of the arthropod (invertebrate) body, remaining in direct contact with the animal's tissues. It is composed of a fluid plasma in which hemolymph cells called hemocytes are suspended. In addition to hemocytes, the plasma also contains many chemicals. It is the major tissue type of the open circulatory system characteristic of arthropods. In addition, some non-arthropods such as mollusks possess a hemolymphatic circulatory system.
A tunicate is a marine invertebrate animal, a member of the subphylum Tunicata. It is part of the Chordata, a phylum which includes all animals with dorsal nerve cords and notochords. The subphylum was at one time called Urochordata, and the term urochordates is still sometimes used for these animals. They are the only chordates that have lost their myomeric segmentation, with the possible exception of the 'seriation of the gill slits'. However, doliolids still display segmentation of the muscle bands.
In cell biology, extracellular fluid (ECF) denotes all body fluid outside the cells of any multicellular organism. Total body water in healthy adults is about 50–60% of total body weight; women and the obese typically have a lower percentage than lean men. Extracellular fluid makes up about one-third of body fluid, the remaining two-thirds is intracellular fluid within cells. The main component of the extracellular fluid is the interstitial fluid that surrounds cells.
Ascidiacea, commonly known as the ascidians or sea squirts, is a paraphyletic class in the subphylum Tunicata of sac-like marine invertebrate filter feeders. Ascidians are characterized by a tough outer "tunic" made of a polysaccharide.
Bioinorganic chemistry is a field that examines the role of metals in biology. Bioinorganic chemistry includes the study of both natural phenomena such as the behavior of metalloproteins as well as artificially introduced metals, including those that are non-essential, in medicine and toxicology. Many biological processes such as respiration depend upon molecules that fall within the realm of inorganic chemistry. The discipline also includes the study of inorganic models or mimics that imitate the behaviour of metalloproteins.
A respiratory pigment is a metalloprotein that serves a variety of important functions, its main being O2 transport. Other functions performed include O2 storage, CO2 transport, and transportation of substances other than respiratory gases. There are four major classifications of respiratory pigment: hemoglobin, hemocyanin, erythrocruorin–chlorocruorin, and hemerythrin. The heme-containing globin is the most commonly-occurring respiratory pigment, occurring in at least 9 different phyla of animals.
A contractile vacuole (CV) is a sub-cellular structure (organelle) involved in osmoregulation. It is found predominantly in protists and in unicellular algae. It was previously known as pulsatile or pulsating vacuole.
Enantiostasis is the ability of an open system, especially a living organism, to maintain and conserve its metabolic and physiological functions in response to variations in an unstable environment. Estuarine organisms typically undergo enantiostasis in order to survive with constantly changing salt concentrations. The Australian NSW Board of Studies defines the term in its Biology syllabus as "the maintenance of metabolic and physiological functions in response to variations in the environment".
Cell physiology is the biological study of the activities that take place in a cell to keep it alive. The term physiology refers to normal functions in a living organism. Animal cells, plant cells and microorganism cells show similarities in their functions even though they vary in structure.
Hemovanadin is a pale green vanabin protein found in the blood cells, called vanadocytes, of ascidians and other organisms. It is one of the few known vanadium-containing proteins. The German chemist Martin Henze first detected vanadium in ascidians in 1911. Unlike hemocyanin and hemoglobin, hemovanadin is not an oxygen carrier.
Ecteinascidia turbinata, commonly known as the mangrove tunicate, is a species of sea squirt species in the family Perophoridae. It was described to science in 1880 by William Abbott Herdman. The cancer drug trabectedin is isolated from E. turbinata.
Phallusia mammillata is a solitary marine tunicate of the ascidian class found in the eastern Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea.
Friedrich Wolfgang Martin Henze was a German chemist.
A vanadocyte is a specialized type of blood cell found in ascidians (tunicates). These cells are notable for their high levels of vanadium (concentrations 107 higher than that of seawater), which is typically a metabolic poison in other contexts.
