Bacterial bioluminescence in vivo: control and synthesis of aldehyde factor in temperature-conditional luminescence mutants.

Bioluminescent marine bacteria possess luciferase, which catalyzes the oxidation of reduced flavin mononucleotide and long-chain aldehyde to produce light. Temperature-sensitive mutants of these bacteria can be obtained which require exogenous aldehyde for light production at higher temperatures. In Beneckea harveyi. two classes of such mutants were found which differed with regard to their response to temperature shifts. In one class, a shift from permissive to nonpermissive temperature in liquid cultures resulted in a rapid (t((1/2)) approximately 3 min) loss of luminescence. In the other, there was no immediate decline in luminescence; it was the increase of luminescence that was blocked. Through studies of these and other effects of temperature shifts on the in vivo luminescence of these mutants, we conclude that at least two genes are specifically involved in the in vivo biosynthesis of aldehyde for the luminescence reaction and that both genes are coordinately controlled with that for luciferase.