12th International Symposium on Bioluminescence & Chemiluminescence

Symposium abstracts:

Relationship between spectral distribution of Vibrio fischeri strain Y1 bioluminescence and intracellular level of its fluorescent proteins

Karatani, Hajime, Chiba, Takayuki, Hirayama, Satoshi

Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, Kyoto Institute of Technology, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606-8585, Japan

Email: karatani@ipc.kit.ac.jp

Yellow emitting luminous bacterium V. fischeri Y1 produces some fluorescent proteins. In

particular, yellow fluorescent protein (YFP) is of importance to induce yellow emission with a maximum around 540 nm in the luciferase reaction. Besides YFP, blue fluorescent protein (BFP) is also one of major fluorescent proteins produced by V. fischeri Y1, but its function is unknown.¹⁾ Noticeably, V. fischeri Y1 alters its bioluminescence color during the cell growth.²⁾ In this study,

the variation of spectral distribution of the V. fischeri Y1 bioluminescence during growth has been analyzed in detail. Shortly after the induction phase, the cells emit blue-green light (l_max, ~ 485 nm), which is fully distinguishable from the YFP associated yellow light that becomes predominant during the late logarithmic growth phase. The intracellular level of the fluorescent proteins, as well as the YFP/luciferase ratio, also seems to be a factor to affect the color of bioluminescence.

1) Karatani, H., T. Wilson, J. W. Hastings, Photochem. Photobiol., 5, 293 (1992)

2) Cho, K.W., P. Colepicolo, J. W. Hastings, Photochem. Photobiol., 50, 671 (1989)

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