Luminous Earthworms Oligochaeta

In the class Oligochaeta, bioluminescent genera are found in three families Enchytraeidae, Lumbricidae, and Megascolecidae (Harvey, 1952 Herring, 1978), and the majority of them are in the last family (.Diplocardia, Lampito, Microscolex, Octocbaetus, Pontodrilus, etc.). 

They are distributed worldwide and all are terrestrial, except Ponto-drilus that is found at the tidal line. 

Wampler and Jamieson (1980) studied 12 species of luminous earthworms belonging to six genera (Diplocardia, Diplotrema, Fletcherodrilus, Octochaetus, Pontodrilus and Spenceriella) from the United States, Australia and New Zealand, and found that all of the species exude luminous coelomic fluid from their dorsal pores, except Pontodrilus bermudensis that exudes the fluid from the mouth. All of them emit luminescence of broad emission spectra with the peaks ranging from 500 nm to over 570 nm. 

Assays of earthworm luciferin and luciferase (Bellisario et al., 1972). The standard assay mixture contains luciferin, luciferase 

Extraction and purification of Diplocardia luciferase (Bellisario et al., 1972). About 50 specimens of Diplocardia longa (widespread in southern Georgia about 30 cm in length) were electrically stimulated in 250 ml of 0.1 M EDTA at 4°C to exude coelomic fluid. The suspension of coelomic cells obtained was centrifuged at 480 g for 5 min. The pellets from 200 worms were combined and an acetone powder was prepared. The acetone powder obtained (about 10 g) was stable at -80°C for at least one year. 

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