Bioluminescence

In all characterized cases, the enzyme catalyzes the oxidation of the luciferin resulting in excited state oxyluciferin, which is the light emitter of the reaction.

[3] Before the development of the safety lamp for use in coal mines, dried fish skins were used in Britain and Europe as a weak source of light.

[5] In 1920, the American zoologist E. Newton Harvey published a monograph, The Nature of Animal Light, summarizing early work on bioluminescence.

As far as the eye reached, the crest of every wave was bright, and the sky above the horizon, from the reflected glare of these livid flames, was not so utterly obscure, as over the rest of the heavens.

[9]Darwin also observed a luminous "jelly-fish of the genus Dianaea",[9] noting that: "When the waves scintillate with bright green sparks, I believe it is generally owing to minute crustacea.

Daniel Pauly comments that Darwin "was lucky with most of his guesses, but not here",[10] noting that biochemistry was too little known, and that the complex evolution of the marine animals involved "would have been too much for comfort".

His research aimed to demonstrate that luciferin, and the enzymes that act on it to produce light, were interchangeable between species, showing that all bioluminescent organisms had a common ancestor.

He spent the next 30 years purifying and studying the components, but it fell to the young Japanese chemist Osamu Shimomura to be the first to obtain crystalline luciferin.

He used the sea firefly Vargula hilgendorfii, but it was another ten years before he discovered the chemical's structure and published his 1957 paper Crystalline Cypridina Luciferin.

[17] Shimomura, Martin Chalfie, and Roger Y. Tsien won the 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their 1961 discovery and development of green fluorescent protein as a tool for biological research.

As the early ancestors of many species moved into deeper and darker waters natural selection favored the development of increased eye sensitivity and enhanced visual signals.

These fish have become surprisingly diverse in the deep ocean and control their light with the help of their nervous system, using it not just to lure prey or hide from predators, but also for communication.

For example, the firefly luciferin/luciferase reaction requires magnesium and ATP and produces CO2, adenosine monophosphate (AMP) and pyrophosphate (PP) as waste products.

[35] Generically, this reaction can be described as: Instead of a luciferase, the jellyfish Aequorea victoria makes use of another type of protein called a photoprotein, in this case specifically aequorin.

[34] Bioluminescence occurs widely among animals, especially in the open sea, including fish, jellyfish, comb jellies, crustaceans, and cephalopod molluscs; in some fungi and bacteria; and in various terrestrial invertebrates, nearly all of which are beetles.

[34][41] The most frequently encountered bioluminescent organisms may be the dinoflagellates in the surface layers of the sea, which are responsible for the sparkling luminescence sometimes seen at night in disturbed water.

The dispersal of bioluminescence across different depths in the pelagic zone has been attributed to the selection pressures imposed by predation and the lack of places to hide in the open sea.

[46] Coevolutionary interactions are suggested as host organisms' anatomical adaptations have become specific to only certain luminous bacteria, to suffice ecological dependence of bioluminescence.

[34] In some cases the function is unknown, as with species in three families of earthworm (Oligochaeta), such as Diplocardia longa, where the coelomic fluid produces light when the animal moves.

[55] The defense mechanisms for bioluminescent organisms can come in multiple forms; startling prey, counter-illumination, smoke screen or misdirection, distractive body parts, burglar alarm, sacrificial tag or warning coloration.

[34] The deep sea squid Octopoteuthis deletron may autotomize portions of its arms which are luminous and continue to twitch and flash, thus distracting a predator while the animal flees.

[17] The larvae of railroad worms (Phrixothrix) have paired photic organs on each body segment, able to glow with green light; these are thought to have a defensive purpose.

Species in the genera Armillaria, Mycena, Omphalotus, Panellus, Pleurotus and others do this, emitting usually greenish light from the mycelium, cap and gills.

[68] South American giant cockroaches of the genus Lucihormetica were believed to be the first known example of defensive mimicry, emitting light in imitation of bioluminescent, poisonous click beetles.

[70][71] While most marine bioluminescence is green to blue, some deep sea barbeled dragonfishes in the genera Aristostomias, Pachystomias and Malacosteus emit a red glow.

This adaptation allows the fish to see red-pigmented prey, which are normally invisible to other organisms in the deep ocean environment where red light has been filtered out by the water column.

Luciferase systems are widely used in genetic engineering as reporter genes, each producing a different color by fluorescence,[76][77] and for biomedical research using bioluminescence imaging.

[81] Vibrio bacteria symbiose with marine invertebrates such as the Hawaiian bobtail squid (Euprymna scolopes), are key experimental models for bioluminescence.

[92] In 2016, Glowee, a French company started selling bioluminescent lights for shop fronts and street signs,[93] for use between 1 and 7 in the morning when the law forbids use of electricity for this purpose.

[93] In April 2020, plants were genetically engineered to glow more brightly using genes from the bioluminescent mushroom Neonothopanus nambi to convert caffeic acid into luciferin.