Luciferin

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Image:Firefly-luciferin-3D-vdW.png

Luciferins (from the Latin lucifer, "light-bringing" [1]) are a class of light-emitting biological pigments found in organisms capable of bioluminescence.

1 Types of luciferin
2 External links

[edit] Types of luciferin

Note that luciferins should not be confused with the enzyme luciferase. Luciferins are a substrate for luciferase.^{[citation needed]} Luciferins are oxidized in the presence of the enzyme luciferase to produce oxyluciferin and energy in the form of light. There are five general types of luciferins.

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[edit] Firefly luciferin

Firefly luciferin is the luciferin found in fireflies. It is the substrate of luciferase (EC 1.13.12.7)

[edit] Bacterial luciferin

Bacterial luciferin is a type of luciferin found in bacteria, some squid and fish. It consists of a long-chain aldehyde and a reduced riboflavin phosphate.

[edit] Dinoflagellate luciferin

Dinoflagellate luciferin is a chlorophyll derivative and is found in dinoflagellates, which are often responsible for the phenomenon of nighttime ocean phosphorescence. A very similar type of luciferin is found in some types of euphausiid shrimp.

[edit] Vargulin

Vargulin is found in certain deep-sea fish; specifically, ostracods and Poricthys. It is an imidazolopyrazine.

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[edit] Coelenterazine

Coelenterazine is found in radiolarians, ctenophores, cnidarians, squid, copepods, chaetognaths, fish and shrimp. It is the light-emitting molecule in the protein aequorin.