Basic and Applications of Bioluminescence and Fluorescence Imaging in Bioscience and Physiological Research

The bioluminescence seen in some biological system are fascinating which occurs due to conversion of chemical energy into light energy. The bioluminescence reaction takes place between luciferase (enzyme) and luciferin (substrate). The bioluminescence also includes fluorescent protein (e.g. GFP) as a part of the system. It widely goes from species like bacteria to fish, and the light emission colors from blue to red in photogenic organism. Though this light emission reaction takes place due to luciferin-luciferase reaction, the chemical structures of enzyme and substrate involving in light emission process are different from one organism to the other. In short, Firefly luciferase cannot catalyze the oxidation of bacterial luciferin. Therefore, the material background and characteristic properties of luciferin and luciferase must be understood in order to sufficiently understand the bioluminescence reaction. The purpose of this seminar is to bring in basic and applied aspects of bioluminescence with the goal of generating new ideas and new approaches for the understanding of basic mechanisms of bioluminescence as well as its practical applications. Especially, I wish to talk about the possibility of bioluminescence systems including fluorescent proteins for analyzing cell dynamics. [Jpn J Physiol 54 Suppl:S3 (2004)]