Bioluminescent organisms

Soon after the hypothetical structure was published, coelenterazine was isolated as an actual substance from the liver of the luminous squid Watasenia scintillans, and it was chemically synthesized (Inoue et al., 1975). The availability of synthetic coelenterazine led to the important discovery that the treatment of the luminescence product of aequorin with coelenterazine results in the regeneration of active aequorin (Shimomura and Johnson, 1975c), which consequently confirmed the presence of a coelenterazine moiety in the aequorin molecule. During the same period, it became increasingly evident that coelenterazine is involved as a luciferin in various bioluminescent organisms, such as the sea cactus Cavernularia, the sea pen Ptilosarcus, and the sea pansy Renilla (Shimomura and Johnson, 1975b). 

The occurrence of coelenterazine in marine bioluminescent organisms is extremely widespread. Coelenterazine functions as their light-emitting substance, usually as a luciferin or the functional group of a... 

Although certain marine organisms produce light when mechanically perturbed, this phenomenon has been used little, and the distribution and activities of the bioluminescent organisms in situ are little known. A few concerted efforts (3-9) showed that bioluminescence is observed almost everywhere ships go that is, the phenomenon is nearly ubiquitous and highly variable. 

Third, in both pump-through and towed bathyphotometers, the distance between the bioluminescing organism and the photomultipier varies to some extent. This variation makes the true intensity of the bioluminescence difficult to determine. 

Figure 6. Bathyphotometer profiles of the concentration of bioluminescent organisms and the hioluminescence they produced at Stations 1 and 3. Organisms producing less light than P. noctiluca (—A—) produce most of the total flashes (O) at any depffi, hut the organisms producing dim flashes (a) do not contribute much to the total bioluminescence ( ). The profile of the chlorophyll peak is shown for comparison (—A—).

The optical background noise was also measured at 3000 m depth in Capo Passero. Data collected in Spring 2002 and 2003, for several months, show that optical background induces on 10 PMTs (0.5 s.p.e.) a constant rate of 20 4- 30 kHz (compatible with the one expected from 40K decay), with negligible contribution of bioluminescence bursts. These results were confirmed by biological analysis that show, at depth> 2500, extremely small concentration of dissolved bioluminescent organisms [39]. 

The approaches to the creation of universal system of biosensors for ecological monitoring using bioluminescent organisms and their enzymes and to devise a laboratory model of a biosensors system are discussed."... 

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

Medvedeva SE, Boyandin A, Lankin Y, Kotov D, Rodicheva E, Popova L. BIOLUMBASE—the database of natural and transgenic bioluminescent organisms. Luminescence 2005 20 90-6. 

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