Department of Biochemistry, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand.
New Zealand Institute for Plant and Food Research Ltd., Department of Chemistry, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand.
Sci Rep. 2018 Feb 19;8(1):3278. doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-21298-w.
The New Zealand glowworm, Arachnocampa luminosa, is well-known for displays of blue-green bioluminescence, but details of its bioluminescent chemistry have been elusive. The glowworm is evolutionarily distant from other bioluminescent creatures studied in detail, including the firefly. We have isolated and characterised the molecular components of the glowworm luciferase-luciferin system using chromatography, mass spectrometry and H NMR spectroscopy. The purified luciferase enzyme is in the same protein family as firefly luciferase (31% sequence identity). However, the luciferin substrate of this enzyme is produced from xanthurenic acid and tyrosine, and is entirely different to that of the firefly and known luciferins of other glowing creatures. A candidate luciferin structure is proposed, which needs to be confirmed by chemical synthesis and bioluminescence assays. These findings show that luciferases can evolve independently from the same family of enzymes to produce light using structurally different luciferins.
新西兰萤火虫 Arachnocampa luminosa 以其蓝绿色生物发光而闻名，但它的生物发光化学细节一直难以捉摸。与其他详细研究的生物发光生物相比，萤火虫在进化上相距甚远，包括萤火虫。我们使用色谱法、质谱法和 H NMR 光谱法分离和表征了萤火虫荧光素酶-荧光素系统的分子成分。纯化的荧光素酶与萤火虫荧光素酶（31%序列同一性）属于同一蛋白家族。然而，这种酶的荧光素底物是由黄嘌呤酸和酪氨酸产生的，与萤火虫和其他发光生物的已知荧光素完全不同。提出了一种候选荧光素结构，需要通过化学合成和生物发光测定来证实。这些发现表明，荧光素酶可以从同一酶家族独立进化，使用结构不同的荧光素来产生光。
