Bioluminescence is the emission of light during a chemiluminescence reaction by living organisms. Bioluminescence occurs in diverse organisms ranging from marine vertebrates and invertebrates, as well as in some fungi, microorganisms including some bioluminescent bacteria, dinoflagellates and terrestrial arthropods such as fireflies. In some animals, the light is bacteriogenic, produced by symbiotic bacteria such as those from the genus Vibrio; in others, it is autogenic, produced by the animals themselves.
Luciferase is a generic term for the class of oxidative enzymes that produce bioluminescence, and is usually distinguished from a photoprotein. The name was first used by Raphaël Dubois who invented the words luciferin and luciferase, for the substrate and enzyme, respectively. Both words are derived from the Latin word lucifer, meaning "lightbearer", which in turn is derived from the Latin words for "light" (lux) and "to bring or carry" (ferre).
Luciferin is a generic term for the light-emitting compound found in organisms that generate bioluminescence. Luciferins typically undergo an enzyme-catalyzed reaction with molecular oxygen. The resulting transformation, which usually involves breaking off a molecular fragment, produces an excited state intermediate that emits light upon decaying to its ground state. The term may refer to molecules that are substrates for both luciferases and photoproteins.
Aliivibrio fischeri is a Gram-negative, rod-shaped bacterium found globally in marine environments. This bacterium grows most effectively in water with a salt concentration at around 20g/L, and at temperatures between 24 and 28°C. This species is non-pathogenic and has bioluminescent properties. It is found predominantly in symbiosis with various marine animals, such as the Hawaiian bobtail squid. It is heterotrophic, oxidase-positive, and motile by means of a tuft of polar flagella. Free-living A. fischeri cells survive on decaying organic matter. The bacterium is a key research organism for examination of microbial bioluminescence, quorum sensing, and bacterial-animal symbiosis. It is named after Bernhard Fischer, a German microbiologist.
Aequorin is a calcium-activated photoprotein isolated from the hydrozoan Aequorea victoria. Its bioluminescence was studied decades before the protein was isolated from the animal by Osamu Shimomura in 1962. In the animal, the protein occurs together with the green fluorescent protein to produce green light by resonant energy transfer, while aequorin by itself generates blue light.
Milky seas, sometimes confused with mareel, are a luminous phenomenon in the ocean in which large areas of seawater appear to glow diffusely and continuously. Such occurrences glow brightly enough at night to be visible from satellites orbiting Earth. Unlike flashing waves or red-tide luminescence caused by "algae" such as dinoflagellates, milky seas are originate from luminous bacteria.
Luminescent bacteria emit light as the result of a chemical reaction during which chemical energy is converted to light energy. Luminescent bacteria exist as symbiotic organisms carried within a larger organism, such as many deep sea organisms, including the Lantern Fish, the Angler fish, certain jellyfish, certain clams and the Gulper eel. The light is generated by an enzyme-catalyzed chemoluminescence reaction, wherein the pigment luciferin is oxidised by the enzyme luciferase. The expression of genes related to bioluminescence is controlled by an operon called the lux operon.
Firefly luciferin is the luciferin, precursor of the light-emitting compound, used for the firefly (Lampyridae), railroad worm (Phengodidae), starworm (Rhagophthalmidae), and click-beetle (Pyrophorini) bioluminescent systems. It is the substrate of firefly luciferase, which is responsible for the characteristic light emission of many firefly and other insect species in the visible spectra ranging from 530 until 630 nm.
Bioluminescence imaging (BLI) is a technology developed over the past decades (1990's and onward). that allows for the noninvasive study of ongoing biological processes Recently, bioluminescence tomography (BLT) has become possible and several systems have become commercially available. In 2011, PerkinElmer acquired one of the most popular lines of optical imaging systems with bioluminescence from Caliper Life Sciences.
A photocyte is a cell that specializes in catalyzing enzymes to produce light (bioluminescence). Photocytes typically occur in select layers of epithelial tissue, functioning singly or in a group, or as part of a larger apparatus. They contain special structures called photocyte granules. These specialized cells are found in a range of multicellular animals including ctenophora, coelenterates (cnidaria), annelids, arthropoda and fishes. Although some fungi are bioluminescent, they do not have such specialized cells.
Pyrocystis fusiformis is a non-motile, tropical, epipelagic, marine dinoflagellate, reaching lengths of up to 1 millimetre (0.039 in). P. fusiformis display bioluminescence when disturbed or agitated. In coastal marine waters, this dinoflagellate causes glowing effects after dark. P. fusiformis was first described in the Proceedings of the Royal Society of London in 1876.
In enzymology, an alkanal monooxygenase (FMN-linked) (EC 1.14.14.3) is an enzyme that catalyzes the chemical reaction
In biology, an autoinducer is a signaling molecule that enables detection and response to changes in the population density of bacterial cells. Synthesized when a bacterium reproduces, autoinducers pass outside the bacterium and into the surrounding medium. They are a key component of the phenomenon of quorum sensing: as the density of quorum-sensing bacterial cells increases, so does the concentration of the autoinducer. A bacterium’s detection of an autoinducer above some minimum threshold triggers altered gene expression.
Vargula hilgendorfii, sometimes called the sea-firefly and one of three bioluminescent species known in Japan as umi-hotaru (海蛍), is a species of ostracod crustacean. It is the only member of genus Vargula to inhabit Japanese waters; all other members of its genus inhabit the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean Sea, and waters off the coast of California. V. hilgendorfii was formerly more common, but its numbers have fallen significantly.
Dinoflagellate luciferase (EC 1.13.12.18, Gonyaulax luciferase) is a specific luciferase, an enzyme with systematic name dinoflagellate-luciferin:oxygen 132-oxidoreductase.
Eleanor Beatrice Marcy "Beazy" Sweeney was an American plant physiologist and a pioneering investigator into circadian rhythms. At the time of her death she was professor emerita at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where she had worked since 1961.
Bioluminescent bacteria are light-producing bacteria that are predominantly present in sea water, marine sediments, the surface of decomposing fish and in the gut of marine animals. While not as common, bacterial bioluminescence is also found in terrestrial and freshwater bacteria. These bacteria may be free living or in symbiosis with animals such as the Hawaiian Bobtail squid or terrestrial nematodes. The host organisms provide these bacteria a safe home and sufficient nutrition. In exchange, the hosts use the light produced by the bacteria for camouflage, prey and/or mate attraction. Bioluminescent bacteria have evolved symbiotic relationships with other organisms in which both participants benefit each other equally. Bacteria also use luminescence reaction for quorum sensing, an ability to regulate gene expression in response to bacterial cell density.
Carl Hirschie Johnson is an American-born biologist who researches the chronobiology of different organisms, most notably the bacterial circadian rhythms of cyanobacteria. Johnson completed his undergraduate degree in Honors Liberal Arts at the University of Texas at Austin, and later earned his PhD in biology from Stanford University, where he began his research under the mentorship of Dr. Colin Pittendrigh. Currently, Johnson is the Stevenson Professor of Biological Sciences at Vanderbilt University.
Scintillons are small structures in cytoplasm that produce light. Among bioluminescent organisms, only dinoflagellates have scintillons.
Jay Dunlap is an American chronobiologist and photobiologist who has made significant contributions to the field of chronobiology by investigating the underlying mechanisms of circadian systems in Neurospora, a fungus commonly used as a model organism in biology, and in mice and mammalian cell culture models. Major contributions by Jay Dunlap include his work investigating the role of frq and wc clock genes in circadian rhythmicity, and his leadership in coordinating the whole genome knockout collection for Neurospora. He is currently the Nathan Smith Professor of Molecular and Systems Biology at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth. He and his colleague Jennifer Loros have mentored numerous students and postdoctoral fellows, many of whom presently hold positions at various academic institutions.
