Abstract

The arm light organ of the firefly squid, Watasenia scintillans, emits extremely bright flashes of light, which are caused by a luciferin–luciferase reaction involving ATP, Mg 2+ and molecular oxygen. The molecular mechanism underlying the bioluminescence reaction has remained unresolved, because the luciferase could not be identified or isolated. The arm light organ contains numerous rod-like bodies that are 2–6 μm long and 1–2 μm thick. This paper addresses the characterization of the extracted rod-like body. We found that the rod-like bodies emit the light in vitro by the luciferin–luciferase reaction. Furthermore, by using the X-ray powder diffraction method, we confirmed that the rod-like bodies are well-ordered microcrystals.

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