What Exactly Is the Light Emitter of a Firefly?

Cheng, Yuanyuan; Liu, Yajun

doi:10.1021/acs.jctc.5b00659

Cited by 54 publications

(60 citation statements)

References 72 publications

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“…That indicates that the 1 ( π , π *) excited state is the possible fluorescent state or bioluminescent state in vivo . This is consistent with our previously studied bioluminescence systems, firefly , jellyfish , Obelia , Cypridina and bacteria , and their bioluminescent states are all 1 ( π , π *) state. The light emitter of dinoflagellate bioluminescence may be luciferin or its derivatives with the same chromophore.…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 92%

Theoretical Study of Dinoflagellate Bioluminescence

Wang

Liu

2016

Photochem & Photobiology

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Dinoflagellates are the most ubiquitous luminescent protists in the marine environment and have drawn much attention for their crucial roles in marine ecosystems. Dinoflagellate bioluminescence has been applied in underwater target detection. The luminescent system of dinoflagellates is a typical luciferin-luciferase one. However, the excited-state oxyluciferin is not the light emitter of dinoflagellate bioluminescence as in most luciferin-luciferase bioluminescent organisms. The oxyluciferin of bioluminescent dinoflagellates is not fluorescent, whereas its luciferin emits bright fluorescence with similar wavelength of the bioluminescence. What is the light emitter of dinoflagellate bioluminescence and what is the chemical process of the light emission like? These questions have not been answered by the limited experimental evidence so far. In this study, for the first time, the density functional calculation is employed to investigate the geometries and properties of luciferin and oxyluciferin of bioluminescent dinoflagellate. The calculated results agree with the experimental observations and indicate the luciferin or its analogue, rather than oxyluciferin, is the bioluminophore of dinoflagellate bioluminescence. A rough mechanism involving energy transfer is proposed for dinoflagellate bioluminescence.

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Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 92%

Theoretical Study of Dinoflagellate Bioluminescence

Wang

Liu

2016

Photochem & Photobiology

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“…[14,47,66] The Fluc-luciferin system is characterized by ap H-sensitive BL, in whicht he emitted light has ap eak wavelength at around 560 nm at basic pH, whereas at acidic pH, the wavelength shifts to am aximum at approximately 620 nm. [14][15][16][17] It should be noted that the identityo ft he light emitter is still am atter of debate, with some researchers claiming the involvement of an anionic keto species [19,47,67] and others favoring the presence of the oxyluciferin enolate. [21,68,69]…”

Section: Firefly Luciferin-luciferaseblmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…BL can be considered as as ub-type of chemiluminescence (CL), which consists of the chemical productionofl ight as ar esult of chemical reactions. [14,15] Several BL and CL systemsh ave been intensively studied, [14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25] which has allowed the development of several new techniques. These rely on variousi ntrinsic and advantageous characteristics:s pecificity,s ensitivity,s peed of reaction, high quantum yields and possibilityf or color modulation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Chemiluminescence and Bioluminescence as an Excitation Source in the Photodynamic Therapy of Cancer: A Critical Review

2016

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Photodynamic therapy (PDT) of cancer is known for its limited number of side effects, and requires light, oxygen and photosensitizer. However, PDT is limited by poor penetration of light into deeply localized tissues, and the use of external light sources is required. Thus, researchers have been studying ways to improve the effectiveness of this phototherapy and expand it for the treatment of the deepest cancers, by using chemiluminescent or bioluminescent formulations to excite the photosensitizer by intracellular generation of light. The aim of this Minireview is to give a précis of the most important general chemi-/bioluminescence mechanisms and to analyze several studies that apply them for PDT. These studies have demonstrated the potential of utilizing chemi-/bioluminescence as excitation source in the PDT of cancer, besides combining new approaches to overcome the limitations of this mode of treatment.

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“…QM/MM calculations were based on empirical crystallographic structure (PDB: 3FGC) of vibrio harveyi luciferase, whose substrate FMN was modified to build the HFOH system. The AMBER Parm99SB force field was utilized for the MM region, while the QM section involved the MS‐CASPT2//CASSCF and DFT methods, respectively, both with the 6‐31G** basis set as before for similar systems . The electrostatic potential fitted (ESPF) method was used to achieve the electrostatic coupling between the QM and MM subsystems.…”

Section: Computational Detailsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bioluminophore and Flavin Mononucleotide Fluorescence Quenching of Bacterial Bioluminescence—A Theoretical Study

Luo

Liu

2016

Chemistry A European J

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Bacterial bioluminescence with continuous glow has been applied to the fields of environmental toxin monitoring, drug screening, and in vivo imaging. Nonetheless, the chemical form of the bacterial bioluminophore is still a bone of contention. Flavin mononucleotide (FMN), one of the light-emitting products, and 4a-hydroxy-5-hydro flavin mononucleotide (HFOH), an intermediate of the chemical reactions, have both been assumed candidates for the light emitter because they have similar molecular structures and fluorescence wavelengths. The latter is preferred in experiments and was assigned in our previous density functional study. HFOH displays weak fluorescence in solutions, but exhibits strong bioluminescence in the bacterial luciferase. FMN shows the opposite behavior; its fluorescence is quenched when it is bound to the luciferase. This is the first example of flavin fluorescence quenching observed in bioluminescent systems and is merely an observation, both the quenching mechanism and quencher are still unclear. Based on theoretical analysis of high-level quantum mechanics (QM), combined QM and molecular mechanics (QM/MM), and molecular dynamics (MD), this paper confirms that HFOH in its first singlet excited state is the bioluminophore of bacterial bioluminescence. More importantly, the computational results indicate that Tyr110 in the luciferase quenches the FMN fluorescence via an electron-transfer mechanism.

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What Exactly Is the Light Emitter of a Firefly?

Cited by 54 publications

References 72 publications

Theoretical Study of Dinoflagellate Bioluminescence

Theoretical Study of Dinoflagellate Bioluminescence

Chemiluminescence and Bioluminescence as an Excitation Source in the Photodynamic Therapy of Cancer: A Critical Review

Bioluminophore and Flavin Mononucleotide Fluorescence Quenching of Bacterial Bioluminescence—A Theoretical Study

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