The enzyme-catalyzed production of light by living organisms, typically during mating or hunting. This word literally means “living light.” Bioluminescence was first identified/analyzed in 1947, by William McElroy. Bioluminescence results when the enzyme luciferase comes into contact with adenosine triphosphate (ATP), inside the photophores (organs which emit the light) of the organism. Such production of light by living organisms is exemplified by fireflies. South America’s railroad worm, and by many deep ocean marine organisms.
Bioluminescence has been utilized by man as a genetic marker (e.g., to cause a genetically engineered plant to glow as evidence that a gene was successfully transferred into that plant). Another use of bioluminescence by man is for the rapid detection of food-borne pathogenic bacteria (e.g., in a food processing factory). One rapid-test for bacteria uses two chemical reagents that first break down bacteria cell membranes, then cause the ATP from those broken cells to luminesce. Another rapid-test uses a electrophoresis to first separate the sequences of bacteria’s DNA (following its extraction from cell and enzymatic fragmentation), cause those separated sequences to luminesce, then a camera is used to record the sequence-pattern light emission and compare that pattern to patterns-of-pathogenic-bacteria previously stored in a database.
Emission of visible light from living organisms, (e.g., cold light produced by fireflies).