The Spectral Distribution of Firefly Light. II

Abstract

ABST R ACT The in vivo peak emission wavelengths of bioluminescence are reported for 15 species of American fireflies. A spectrophotometric study of the dorsal light organs of 155 specimens of the Jamaican firefly Pyrophorus plagiophthalamus showed three distinct color distributions with peak emission wavelengths at 550.1 4-1.5 mu, 556.8 4-1.4 m/z, and 562.4 4-1.0 m/z. Similar spectral measurements of 35 ventral light organs of the same insects gave peak emission wavelengths ranging from 547 through 594 m/z. This is a wider distribution than the total range of all 34 species of firefly studied to date. There was no obvious correlation between the colors of the ventral and dorsal light organs. It appears that P. plagiophthalamus is a special case in which the luciferase enzyme is not only different among members of the same species, but it may be different for the dorsal and ventral light organs in a single individual, A minimum of six different luciferase molecules for P. plagiophthalamus ventral light organs is proposed. The statistical precision in making these spectrophotometric measurements is discussed. I N T R O D U C T I O NIn a previous paper (1) a s u m m a r y through 1963 of all measurements of the in vivo bioluminescence emission spectra of fireflies was presented. This included 20 species, both American and J a m a i c a n , measured by photoelectric spectrometry (2, 3). T h e present paper extends the d a t a to include an additional 15 American species. In addition we have completed an extensive study of the emission spectra of 301 specimens of the J a m a i c a n firefly, Pyrophorus plagiophthalamus, a species which exhibits an unusual intraspecies variability in the color of light emitted. F r o m a statistical analysis of these data, it might be possible to dcduce that there exist structural differences in the "luciferasc" enzyme molecules responsible for light emission in the firefly.

Bioluminescence emissions of the firefly Luciola praeusta Kiesenwetter 1874 (Coleoptera: Lampyridae: Luciolinae)

“…Existence of distinct groups of bands in a few species of fireflies has also been reported (Iwasaka and Ueno 1998, Biggley et al 1967, Bora and Baruah 1991. In this report, we have presented, of firefly Luciola praeusta, an in vivo emission spectrum, where the full width at half maximum (FWHM) value has come out to be significantly narrow.…”

Nitric oxide donor-mediated killing of bioluminescent Escherichia coli

“…The enzyme uses D-luciferin, 02, and ATP as substrates and produces AMP, oxyluciferin, PPi, water, and light (547 to 617 nm) as end products (3). The gene coding for green lightemitting luciferase from the click beetle has been expressed in Escherichia coli (30) and insect Spodoptera frugiperda cells (9).…”

Characterisation of the luciferase gene and the 5' upstream region in the European glow-worm Lampyris noctiluca (Coleoptera: Lampyridae)

“…The railroad-worms emit yellow-green light through eleven pairs of lateral lanterns along the body and red light through two cephalic lanterns. The click beetles of Jamaica have ventral light organs producing light ranging from yellow-green to orange and their dorsal organs from green to yellow-green (Seliger et al, 1964;Biggley et al, 1967). Different light emission within the same individual is not a result of the substrate luciferin but amino acid differences in the luciferase sequence confirmed by cDNA characterisation (Viviani et al, 1999;Stolz et al, 2003).…”