CHARACTERISTICS OF CELL FREE FUNGAL 

 BIOLUMINESCENCEi 



R. L. AlRTH 



Department of Botany 

 University of Texas, Austin, Texas 



The emission of light by certain fungal species has been observed 

 by many investigators, one of the early notations being made by 

 Pliny. Indeed, one of the first "practical applications" of this lumin- 

 ous form was to serve as a light source on a submarine, the Turtle, 

 built for the United States Navy and used during the Revolutionary 

 War (5). There have been many technological advances in the pro- 

 pelling force of submarines since the Turtle, but very little attention 

 has been given to the original light source. While not at the atomic 

 level, the obvious final objectives, a study of luminous molds at the 

 molecular level, has been initiated. 



Harvey (6) has made note of his own imsuccessful attempts and 

 the failure of several other investigators to obtain the classical luci- 

 ferin-luciferase reaction in a cell-free preparation of luminous fungi. 

 Recently, however, this was accomplished by mixing a cold water 

 extract containing the enzyme luciferase, a hot water extract con- 

 taining the substrate luciferin (LHo) , and a reduced pyridine nu- 

 cleotide (1) . The pyridine nucleotide (PN) requirement is non- 

 specific in that either reduced triphosphopyridine nucleotide (TPNH) 

 or diphosphopyridine nucleotide (DPNH) can act as the hydrogen 

 donor, the former being about 2.5 times more reactive both as to 

 the initial rate and the maximum light intensity. A "typical" light 

 emission curve from such a reaction mixture is presented in Fig. 1. 

 All reactions in vitro were carried out with Collybia vehitipes as an 

 enzyme source and Armillaria mellea as the source of substrate. 



Light emission is not obtained until the reaction mixture is com- 

 plete. Though a fresh luciferase preparation will emit a small amount 



' 1 lie iiucsti^atioiis in this paper were siippoi led l)v research grants from the 

 National Institutes of Healtli, tlic National Science Foundation, and The Univer- 

 sity of Texas Research Institute. 



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