Beetles, bioluminescent

Colepicolo-Neto, P., Viviani, V. R., Barros, M. P., and Costa, C. (1999). Colors and biological functions of beetle bioluminescence. An. Acad, Bras. Cienc. 71 169-174. 

Wood, K. V. (1995). The chemical mechanism and evolutionary development of beetle bioluminescence. Photochem. Photobiol. 62 662-673. 

McCapra F, Gilfoyle D, Young D, Church N, Spencer P. The chemical origin of colour differences in beetle bioluminescence. In Bio luminescence and Chemiluminescence. Fundamentals and Applied Aspects. Campbell AK, Kricka LJ, Stanley PE (eds). Chichester Wiley, 1994 387-91. 

Firefly. Firefly luciferase (EC 1.13.12.7) is a homodimeric enzyme (62 kDa subunit) that has binding sites for firefly luciferin and Mg ATP . Amino acid sequence analysis has iadicated that beetle luciferases evolved from coen2yme A synthetase (206). Firefly bioluminescence is the most efficient bioluminescent reaction known, with Qc reported to be 88% (5), and at 562 nm (56). At low pH and ia the presence of certain metal ions (eg, Pb ", ... 

The fireflies, railroad worms, and click beetles use the same luciferin in their luminescence reactions. Recent studies on the railroad worms and the click beetles have greatly contributed to the biochemical understanding of the firefly bioluminescence (see Section 1.2). Concerning luminous Diptera, significant progress has been made only recently. 

The bioluminescence systems of Phengodidae (railroad worms) and Elateroidae (click beetles) are basically identical to that of Lampyridae (fireflies), requiring firefly luciferin, ATP, Mg2+ and a luciferase for light emission. However, there seem to be some differences. Viviani and Bechara (1995) reported that the spectra of the luminescence reactions measured with the luciferases of Brazilian fireflies (6 species) shift from the yellow-green range to the red range with lowering of the pH of the medium, like in the case of the Photinus pyralis luciferase (see Section 1.1.5), whereas the spectra... 

The elaterid Pyrophorus is of special importance in the history of bioluminescence, because it was used by Dubois in his first demonstration of the luciferin-luciferase reaction in 1885. The Jamaican click beetle (Pyrophorus noctilucus) is commonly found in the West Indies. The beetle possesses two kinds of luminous organs. A... 

Fig. 17 Reaction schemes for the bioluminescence of lucifera-ses. Both forms of luciferase catalyze the oxidation of their respective substrates (A) Renilla luciferase oxidizes coelenter-azine (B) firefly luciferase oxidizes beetle luciferin.

The book covers the fundamental aspects of bioluminescence, including beetle, marine bacterial and Cypridina bioluminescence, and the fundamental aspects of chemiluminescence, including 1,2-dioxetanes. It also presents recent developments in instrumentation and devices and a wide range of applications of bioluminescence and chemiluminescence. 

The majority of bioluminescent organisms live in the ocean, but there are many terrestrial forms, notably beetles, that exploit bioluminescence. The bioluminescence of fireflies... 

We describe the overall approach for generating chck beetle luciferase complementation reporters for live-cell bioluminescence imaging of chemokine receptor signaling. We refer readers to other standard texts, such as Methods in Molecular Biology, for detailed protocols for molecular biology procedures including PCR and ligations. 

Plate cells at a density of 1 X 10 —2 X 10 cells per well in 100 pi complete growth medium with serum in black walled, clear bottom 96-well plates for tissue culture. Since complementation of click beetle luciferase fragments produces less bioluminescence than intact CBGN or red, we typically use 96-weIl rather than 384-weU plates for cell-based assays. This approach allows us to use shorter acquisition times in each emission channel and improves resolution for kinetics of signahng. For 384-weU plate assays, we use 3 x 10 —5 X 10 cells perweU. We typically culture cells for two days in 96-weU plates before assays. 

Bioluminescence was discovered by Dubois in 1885 while studying an insect of the genus Pyrophorus (a beetle). It is most often produced by the luciferin-luciferase (L-L) system. Luciferin is a small nitrogenous molecule that is readily oxidized, and luciferase is an enzyme that catalyzes... 

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