Team:Cambridge/Bioluminescence/Luciferin Regeneration

From 2010.igem.org

(Difference between revisions)
Line 8: Line 8:
</html>
</html>
-
Fireflies are easily visible in the evening, whereas colonies of bacteria expressing luciferase are not.  We hope to remove this divide by expressing further enzymes exploited by fireflies.  In <i>E. coli</i> and in eukaryotes, each molecule of luciferin that emits light is turned into oxyluciferin and cannot be regenerated.  A further problem is that this oxyluciferin inhibits the further reactions of luciferase.
+
Fireflies are easily visible in the evening, whereas colonies of bacteria expressing luciferase are not.  We hope to remove this divide by expressing further enzymes exploited by fireflies.  In <i>E. coli</i> and in eukaryotes, each molecule of luciferin that emits light is turned into oxyluciferin and cannot be regenerated.  A further problem is that this oxyluciferin inhibits the further reactions of luciferase (see [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11457857 Gomi & Kajiyama])
We believe that the newly characterised <strong>luciferin regenerating enzyme</strong> may solve these problems and allow brighter longer lasting light output without further addition of substrate.
We believe that the newly characterised <strong>luciferin regenerating enzyme</strong> may solve these problems and allow brighter longer lasting light output without further addition of substrate.

Revision as of 14:36, 23 October 2010