Photinus pyralis mingrelica

Although numerous luminous organisms are known, only a few of them has been studied and really exploited. Analytical applications of bioluminescence concern mainly the detection of ATP with the firefly luciferase and of NADH with some marine bacteria systems. Luciferase from the North American firefly, i.e., Photinus pyralis, has been extensively studied10-12 and afterwards, attention has been paid to the luciferase from Luciola mingrelica, i.e., the North Caucasus firefly13 15. 

Beside that of Photinus pyralis, other luciferases have been described in the literature such as those from Luciola cruciata, Luciola lateralis [122], and Luciola mingrelica. Among them luciferase from the latter one has been employed for analytical purposes [123],... 

In this age of powerful computers, it is no longer even necessary to find analytical solution to differential equations. There are many software packages available that cany out numerical integration of differential equations followed by non-linear regression to fit the model and assess its quality by comparing with experimental data. In this study we have used a numerical integration approach to compare kinetic properties of Photinus pyralis and Luciola mingrelica firefly luciferases. 

Photinus pyralis firefly luciferase (PP) was obtained from Sigma, Luciola mingrelica firefly luciferase (LM) was isolated and purified according to. Time-course of bioluminescent reaction rate (v) was monitored as the intensity of light (I) in time according to equation 1 using a luminometer model 1251 (LKB Sweden). 

---