Watasenia preluciferin

The name of coelenterazine. We suggested calling the new luciferin coelenterazine (Shimomura and Johnson, 1975b), although Inoue et al. (1976) named it Watasenia preluciferin. The compound has been called by various other names, such as coelenterate luciferin, coelenterate-type luciferin, Oplopborus luciferin, and Renilla luciferin. However, these two-word chemical names are cumbersome to use and inconvenient when applying a chemical prefix or suffix. Currently, the name coelenterazine is widely and commonly used. 

Amino-3-benzyl-5-(4-hydroxyphenyl)pyrazine (176), a precursor of Watasenia preluciferin (coelenterazine, a natural product found in marine bioluminescent animals), was synthesized in 3 steps from 4-hydroxyphenylglyoxal aldoxime in a 56% overall yield <02CPB301>. 

Other Names 8-Benzyl-2-(4-hydroxybenzyl)-6-(4-hy-droxyphenyl)imidazo[l,2-a]pyrazin-3(7//)-one CLZN Coelenterazin Coelenterazine Coelenterazine native 3,2-Dihydro-2-(p-hydroxybenzyl)-6-(p-hydroxyphenyl)-8-benzylimidazolo[l,2-fl]pyrazin-3-one Luciferin Lu-ciferin (Oplopborus) NanoFuel Preluciferin Prelucifer-in Wataseniay, Watasenia preluciferin... 

Kakoi, H. Inoue, S. Improved synthesis of Watasenia preluciferin. Heterocycles 1998, 48, 1669-1672. 

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