Sergestes lucens

Extraction and purification (Shimomura et al., 1978). Dr. Yata Haneda and Dr. Shoji Inoue kindly provided us with specimens of O. gracilirostris, which had been picked out one by one from large commercial catches of Sergestes lucens netted in Suruga Bay, Japan. The material was air-dried or freeze-dried before shipment to the U.S. 

Shiomi, K., A. Shinagawa, T. Igarashi, H. Yamanaka, and T. Kikuchi. 1984b. Evidence for the presence of arsenobetaine as a major arsenic compound in the shrimp Sergestes lucens. Experientia 40 1247-1248. 

Using aqueous extracts of a dried shrimp, Sergestes lucens and a fresh prawn, Pandalus borealis, Take et al. (37) examined organoleptically the role of various constituents in the make-up of their taste. The results are summarized as follows. 

Shrimps of the genus Sergestes normally emit light from their photophores. However, S. lucens, a species abundantly harvested in Japan as a delicacy Sakura-ebi, has never been observed to emit light despite its specific name and the clear presence of photophores (Haneda, 1985). This species (body weight 0.4 g) undoubtedly contains some coelenterazine, but shows very little luciferase activity, which seems to be insufficient as evidence for the existence of a luciferase (Shimomura et al., 1980 see the note at the end of Section 5.2 for the reason). Thus, the luminescence of S. lucens might involve a coelenterazine luminescence system different from... 

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