What is it?
• Light as a result of a chemical reaction
• Common examples: fireflies, anglerfish, mushrooms
• Luminescent bacteria: basic luminescent organism to work with
The Mechanism
• Light produced by oxidation of luciferin catalyzed by luciferase in the presence of ATP
• Luciferin, when oxidized, degrades to coelenteramide and releases energy in the form of a photon
• Luciferin, luciferase general terms
• Little to no heat loss
Why use bioluminescence?
• Aspects that make bioluminescence helpful to work with– Luciferase genes can be inserted into organisms– The reaction uses ATP, provides a useful gauge of
ATP concentration– Produces light!
What has been done?
• Genes have been synthesized, inserted into mice, silkworms, potatoes, monkey cells
• Luciferase gene modification– Gene contains 6 introns, all <60 bases
– Has been modified to express 2x luciferase• http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=365129
• Detection of living Salmonella cells• http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19169891
• GloFish
• Bioluminescent assays– Targets such as kinases, proteases,
apoptosis– Detection of ATP allows analysis of cell
metabolism and enzymatic processes• http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17355205
• Whole animal imaging– Different types of cells (bone marrow stem
cells, T-cells) can express firefly luciferase– Allows imaging; can be used to track tumor
development• http://cancerres.aacrjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/63/21/7042 • http://www.promega.com/pnotes/100/16620_22/16620_22.pdf
Crazy
• Solar-powered light sources– Plants already create ATP from
photosynthesis– Could use ATP for luminescence at night
• Applications include city lighting, nightlights & Christmas lights, art
• Living houses? Fab tree hab?
Interesting
• Modify bacteria to monitor chemical levels– Bioluminescent bacteria (e.coli) modified to be
selective towards certain toxins– Luminometer returns toxin levels– Useful for environmental toxin monitoring
Interesting
• Detect presence of certain chemicals (harmful, maybe pollutants?)– Insert luciferase gene into an organism that
thrives under and indicates certain conditions (ie algae and phosphorus?)
Safe
• Luminescent bacteria tags– Insert luciferase gene into symbiotic bacteria
that can live in certain organisms– Uses: track pests, non-native species, etc.