Bioluminescence

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

Ideas

From Wikipedia

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.

Safe

• Life-spanned messages/patterns/pictures– Grow luminescent cells/bacteria on a plate– Will only grow/glow as long as they have

nutrients– Will lose luminescence when nutrients run out