Mofford David M, Liebmann Kate L, Sankaran Ganapathy Subramanian, Reddy G S Kiran Kumar, Reddy G Randheer, Miller Stephen C
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, University of Massachusetts Medical School , Worcester, Massachusetts 01605, United States.
ACS Chem Biol. 2017 Dec 15;12(12):2946-2951. doi: 10.1021/acschembio.7b00813. Epub 2017 Nov 7.
Long-chain fatty acyl-CoA synthetases (ACSLs) are homologues of firefly luciferase but are incapable of emitting light with firefly luciferin. Recently, we found that an ACSL from the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster is a latent luciferase that will emit light with the synthetic luciferin CycLuc2. Here, we have profiled a panel of three insect ACSLs with a palette of >20 luciferin analogues. An ACSL from the nonluminescent beetle Agrypnus binodulus (AbLL) was found to be a second latent luciferase with distinct substrate specificity. Several rigid luciferins emit light with both ACSLs, but styryl luciferin analogues are light-emitting substrates only for AbLL. On the other hand, an ACSL from the luminescent beetle Pyrophorus angustus lacks luciferase activity with all tested analogues, despite its higher homology to beetle luciferases. Further study of ACSLs is expected to shed light on the features necessary for bioluminescence and substrate selectivity.
长链脂肪酰辅酶A合成酶（ACSLs）是萤火虫荧光素酶的同源物，但不能与萤火虫荧光素发光。最近，我们发现果蝇黑腹果蝇中的一种ACSL是一种潜在的荧光素酶，它能与合成荧光素CycLuc2发光。在这里，我们用20多种荧光素类似物对三种昆虫ACSLs进行了分析。发现来自非发光甲虫双瘤隐翅虫（AbLL）的一种ACSL是第二种具有不同底物特异性的潜在荧光素酶。几种刚性荧光素能与两种ACSLs都发光，但苯乙烯基荧光素类似物仅是AbLL的发光底物。另一方面，来自发光甲虫狭叶火萤的一种ACSL，尽管与甲虫荧光素酶具有更高的同源性，但对所有测试的类似物都缺乏荧光素酶活性。对ACSLs的进一步研究有望揭示生物发光和底物选择性所需的特征。
