12th International Symposium on Bioluminescence & Chemiluminescence

Symposium abstracts:

Origins of bioluminescence in beetles: A phylogenetic perspective

Day, John C.¹, White, Peter J.², Squirrell, D. ², Bailey, M.J.¹

1. CEH Oxford, Mansfield Road, Oxford, OX1 3SR, UK. Email: jcda@ceh.ac.uk

2. DSTL Porton Down, Wiltshire SP4 0JQ, UK

Bioluminescence is a phenomenon that predominates in the oceans. A few millipedes, worms, the larvae of certain fungus gnats, and beetles are the only terrestrial animals to exhibit bioluminescence. It has been proposed that beetle bioluminescence arose after the terrestrial invasion of animals (approx. 400 MYA), possibly originating from a new activity evolving from the enzyme 4-coumarate:CoA ligase. This is supported by the absence of beetle luminescence chemistry in any of the luminous marine arthropods.

We investigate this scenario and an alternative one, that of an aquatic origin of coleopteran bioluminescence and examine evolutionary evidence to support such cases.

Light generated by beetles occurs when ATP and luciferin are combined to produce an active intermediate, which, upon oxidation, emits a photon of light. This reaction is catalysed by luciferase, currently characterised from 12 different coleopteran species.

We examine luciferase amino acid sequences and compare evolutionary projections against those of traditional phylogenetic markers such as various mitochondrial loci to establish a-priori hypotheses as to the evolution of bioluminescence in terrestrial organisms.

This is a preprint of an article accepted for publication in Luminescence: Copyright 2001 John
Wiley & Sons, Ltd (Wiley website)