Team:Cambridge/Bioluminescence/Bacterial Luciferases

Pathway

Bacterial lux operons emit light using five enzymes:

• luxA and luxB form the luciferase part of the system, they emit light using the substrate tetradecanal
• luxC, luxD and luxE are involved in the biosynthesis of tetradecanal from readily available substrates

Bioluminescent species

The Cambridge team is looking into these bacterial luciferases:

One of the plates of V. phosphoreum we prepared.

• Vibrio fischeri forms symbioses with squid to prevent the squid from casting a shadow on moonlit nights. Due to this their lux proteins are non-functional above 30 degrees
• Photorhabdus luminescens lives in the gut of nematodes. The purpose of its bioluminescence is not understood but its lux casette is widely used in reporters
• Vibrio (formerly Photobacterium) phosophoreum emits a very blue light, perhaps partly through its use of lumazine