Vibrionaceae is a large marine bacterial family, which can constitute up to 50% of the prokaryotic population in marine waters. Photobacterium is the second largest genus in the family and we used comparative genomics on 35 strains representing 16 of the 28 species described so far, to understand the genomic diversity present in the Photobacterium genus. Such understanding is important for ecop...

UNLABELLED Bacterial bioluminescence is taxonomically restricted to certain proteobacteria, many of which belong to the Vibrionaceae. In the most well-studied cases, pheromone signaling plays a key role in regulation of light production. However, previous reports have indicated that certain Photobacterium strains do not use this regulatory method for controlling luminescence. In this study, we ...

Heterocyclic nitrogen compounds are extensively used as intermediates in the manufacture of pesticides and herbicides, while their toxicity has been little reported (Chen et al, 1997). In this paper, we report the toxicity of 14 heterocyclic nitrogen compounds to Photobacterium phosphoreum measured by Microtox® test which has been proposed as a cost-effective prescreening procedure to eliminate...

The involvement of long chain aldehyde in bacterial luminescence was known both from its being required for light emission in the in vitro reaction with pure luciferase and from its ability to stimulate luminescence in vivo in a certain class of dark "aldehyde" mutants. We have found that the luminescence of some (but not all) of such aldehyde mutants is also stimulated by long chain aliphatic ...