Glow in the Dark

The chemical trick of bioluminescence has been discovered dozens of times during the evolution of life, by bacteria, by fungi, by sea anemones, by dinoflagellates, and, of course, by fireflies. In each case, there is a luciferase protein that uses a luciferin cofactor to trap oxygen. The proteins are all very different, and the luciferins come in all shapes and sizes, indicating that they have all separately evolved to perform the same function. Two examples are shown here. The one on the left is from a bacterium (PDB entry 1brl) and the one on the right is from a dinoflagellate that is responsible for the greenish glow seen in breaking waves (PDB entry 1vpr). Note that both of these structures include only the luciferase protein, and are missing their luciferin cofactors.

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