Chemistry of Bioluminescence

THE STRUCTURE OF THE LUCIFERINS With their fascinating phenomena we recognize many bioluminescent organisms, such as firefly, luminous bacteria, luminous fungi, and luminous deep-sea fish. Some eighty years ago, Dubois found that the bioluminescence of the luminescent beetle Pyrophorus is due to the luciferin—luciferase reaction. Bioluminescence1—9 was observed when a hot aqueous extract ("luciferin") of the insect was mixed with a cold aqueous extract ("luciferase") after the initial luminescence had disappeared. This observation led to numerous studies on the luciferin—luciferase reaction9' 10 many bioluminescent organisms (Table 1). It is now known that hot water extracts luciferin and destroys luciferase; the cold-water extract contains luciferase, and also luciferin at first, but the latter changes into an inactive oxidation product on standing in air.