bioluminescence
Sign in to savethumb|Flying and glowing firefly, [[Photinus pyralis]] thumb|upright |Female glowworm, [[Lampyris noctiluca]] Bioluminescence is the production of light by an organism as the result of a chemiluminescence reaction. It occurs in a wide variety of organisms, including marine vertebrates and invertebrates, terrestrial arthropods such as fireflies, some fungi, and microorganisms such as some bacteria and dinoflagellates. In some animals, the light is bacteriogenic, produced by symbiotic bacteria such as those from the genus Vibrio; in others, it is autogenic, produced by the animals themselves. Bi
AI overview
Bioluminescence is the ability of living organisms to produce light through chemical reactions, and it occurs in diverse creatures ranging from fireflies and glowworms to certain marine animals, fungi, and microorganisms. This light production can come from the organism itself or from symbiotic bacteria living within it, and it appears across many different species in both marine and terrestrial environments.
AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.
Article
24 sectionsContents
- History
- Evolution
- Chemical mechanism
- Distribution
- Pelagic zone
- Bacterial symbioses
- Benthic zone
- Uses in nature
- Counterillumination camouflage
- Attraction
- Defense
- Warning
- Communication
- Mimicry
- Illumination
- Biotechnology
- Biology and medicine
- Light production
- ATP bioluminescence
- See also
- Notes
- References
- Further reading
- External links
thumb|Flying and glowing firefly, [[Photinus pyralis]] thumb|upright |Female glowworm, [[Lampyris noctiluca]] Bioluminescence is the production of light by an organism as the result of a chemiluminescence reaction. It occurs in a wide variety of organisms, including marine vertebrates and invertebrates, terrestrial arthropods such as fireflies, some fungi, and microorganisms such as some bacteria and dinoflagellates. In some animals, the light is bacteriogenic, produced by symbiotic bacteria such as those from the genus Vibrio; in others, it is autogenic, produced by the animals themselves. Bioluminescence has evolved independently at least 94 times, first emerging in octocorals some 540 million years ago.
In most cases, the principal chemical reaction in bioluminescence involves the reaction of a substrate called luciferin and an enzyme, called luciferase. Because these are generic names, luciferins and luciferases are often distinguished by the species or group, e.g. firefly luciferin or cypridina luciferin. In all characterized cases, the enzyme catalyzes the oxidation of the luciferin resulting in excited state oxyluciferin, which is the light emitter of the reaction. Upon their decay to the ground state they emit visible light.