User:FabyRockPhoto/sandbox

Hi everyone. Welcome in my sandbox page.

I'm a university student in Microbiology and one part of my exam is improve a Wikipedia article. According to the Wikipedia rules, me and my school group will add some information.

This is my draft page where I order our research, reference, articles and image. So please don't ban the page, but if you have any advice, discuss it in the talk section.

Discovery
In 1977 the American bathyscaphe DSV Alvin explored the rift of the Galápagos Islands. At the time was known the presence of thermal springs near the mid oceanic ridges and further reasearch discovered also aquatic life in the area, despite the high temperature (around 350°C – 380°C).

Thanks to a manipulator arm of Alvin, many samples were collected, especially from Bivalves, Polychaetes, large crabs and long white tubes of about 2 m, with apical red tufts. It was the first time that Riftia pachyptila was observed.

Body Structure
Isolating the vermiform body from white chitonous tube, there is a small difference from the classic three subdivisions typical of phylum Pogonophora : the prosoma, the mesosoma, and the metasoma. The first body region is the branchial plume, which is bright red due to the presence of hemoglobin. If the animal perceives a threat or is touched, it retracts and the tube is closed thanks to the obturaculum, a particular operculm which protects and isolates the animal from the external environment.

The second body region is the vestimentum, formed by muscle bands, having a winged shape and it presents the two genital openings at the end. The heart, extended portion of dorsal vessel, enclose the vestimentum.

In the middle part there is the trunk, third body region, full of vascularized solid tissue and which includes body wall, gonads, coelomic cavity. Here is located also the trophosome, spongy tissue where there is a billion of symbiotic Thioautotrophic Bacteria and sulfur granules. Since the mouth, digestive system and anus are missing, the survival of Riftia pachyptila is guaranteed by this mutualistic symbiosis.

The soluble hemoglobins, present in the tentacles, are able to bind oxygen and sulfidric acid, which are necessary for chemosynthetic bacteria. Thanks to the capillaries these compounds are absorbed by bacteria. During the chemosynthesis, the mitochondrial enzyme rhodanase catalyzes the disproportionation reaction of the thiosulfate anion S2O32- to sulfur S and sulfite SO32-. The Riftia pachyptila’s bloodstream is responsable for absorption the products like O2 and nutrients like carbohydrates.

In the posterior part, the fourth body region, there is opistosome, which anchor the animal to the tube and it is used for the storage of waste from bacterial reactions.