The majority of bacteria engaged in bioluminescent symbiosis are environmentally acquired and facultatively symbiotic. A few enigmatic bioluminescent symbionts have not been successfully cultured, which has led to speculation that they may be obligately dependent on their hosts. Here, we report the draft genome of the uncultured luminous symbiont of an anomalopid flashlight fish, 'Candidatus Ph...

Bioluminescence (lux) genes from Vibrio fischeri and V. harveyi were introduced into Bacillus subtilis on a plasmid vector and by chromosomal integration. The plasmid-bearing strain was highly luminescent and stable under antibiotic selection, but luminescence was lost in the absence of selection and following sporulation and germination. The chromosomally marked strains emitted less light but ...

The effects of temperature, light and pH on mycelial growth and luminescence of four naturally bioluminescent fungi were investigated. Cultures of Armillaria mellea, Mycena citricolor, Omphalotus olearius and Panellus stipticus were grown at 5 degrees C, 15 degrees C, 22 degrees C and 30 degrees C, under 24 h light, 12 h light/12 h dark and 24 h dark, and at a pH ranging from 3.5 to 7 in three ...

Influenza transmission efficiency in ferrets is vital for risk-assessment studies. However, the inability to monitor viral infection and transmission dynamics in real time only provides a glimpse into transmissibility. Here we exploit a replication-competent influenza reporter virus to investigate dynamics of infection/transmission in ferrets. Bioluminescent imaging of ferrets infected with A/C...

Nowadays, microalgae are particularly used to assess the environmental impact of contaminants in aquatic systems. Naturally present in some algal species, bioluminescence is highly used in application fields related to environmental monitoring. Bioluminescent dinoflagellates have played a pivotal role in this domain. When exposed to heavy metals or toxic organic compounds, bioluminescent dinofl...

THE STRUCTURE OF THE LUCIFERINS With their fascinating phenomena we recognize many bioluminescent organisms, such as firefly, luminous bacteria, luminous fungi, and luminous deep-sea fish. Some eighty years ago, Dubois found that the bioluminescence of the luminescent beetle Pyrophorus is due to the luciferin—luciferase reaction. Bioluminescence1—9 was observed when a hot aqueous extract ("luci...

A bioluminescent Lactobacillus plantarum (pLuc2) strain was constructed. The luminescent signal started to increase during the early exponential phase and reached its maximum in the mid-exponential phase in a batch culture of the strain. The signal detection sensitivity of the strain was the highest in PBS (phosphate buffered saline), followed by milk and MRS broth, indicating that the sensitiv...

We developed a novel bioluminescent assay for detection of pyrophosphate in polymerase chain reaction (PCR) product. The principle of this method is as follows: pyrophosphate released by PCR is converted to adenosine 5'-triphosphate (ATP) by pyruvate phosphate dikinase in the presence of the substrate pyruvate phosphate and the coenzyme adenosine 5'-monophosphate; subsequently, ATP concentratio...

Here, we present the first experimental in vitro evidence of the existence of spontaneous and visible light-induced ultraweak photon emission from freshly isolated whole eye, lens, vitreous humor, and retina samples from rats. These results suggest that the photochemical source of retinal discrete noise, as well as retinal phosphenes, may originate from natural bioluminescent photons within the...

In vivo bioluminescent imaging (BLI) permits the visualization of engineered bioluminescence from living cells and tissues to provide a unique perspective toward the understanding of biological processes as they occur within the framework of an authentic in vivo environment. The toolbox of in vivo BLI includes an inventory of luciferase compounds capable of generating bioluminescent light signa...