THE LUCIFERIN LUCIFERASE REACTIONi 

 Frank H. Johnson and Edward H.-C. Sie 



Depnitinoil of Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 



AND Y. HaNEDA 



Yokosuka City Museum and Tokyo Jikeikai Medical School, Japan 



Origin and Definition 



Nearly half a century ago, a book by a French general physiologist, 

 Raphael Dubois (11), was published under the title La Vie et la 

 Lumiere. In subject matter as well as title it was similar to the 

 present symposium, for it dealt not only with the phenomenon of 

 bioluminescence, which was Dubois' major interest and took up al- 

 most half the book, but also with problems of photosynthesis, with 

 the biological action of a wide spectrum of radiations, from X-rays 

 to Hertzian, and with other topics pertinent to the general subject. 

 Most of the topics that were included bear to some extent on the 

 comfort or well-being of man. Extensive, accelerating research since 

 that time has brought tremendous advances in knowledge of these 

 subjects. Bioluminescence, however, is of no obvious importance to 

 man, or even to the great majority of the organisms which possess it, 

 and advances in this area have been less spectacular. 



Dubois was a singidarly appropriate author for a book emphasizing 

 bioluminescence as at least a fascinating aspect of "Light and Life." 

 He was responsible, in 1885, for the first really substantial break- 

 through from a biochemical point of view (9), and had spent much 

 of the ensuing years jjursuing further investigations in this area. 

 His initial, now classic, experiment consisted simply in (1) plunging 

 a brigluly hnninescing photogenic organ of the West Indian elaterid 

 beetle lyroplioriis into boiling water, which extinguished the light, 



' Sonic of I lie work icpoilcd in this paper has been aided in part by Office of 

 Naval Research (oiitrad Noiir I. S.").'? (()()). by National Science Foundation grants 

 (. 4')1H and (. (ilOfi. 1)\ the Kiigene Higgins Fund allocated to Princeton University, 

 and by the )apanese National (Commission for UNF.SCIO. Reproduction, transla- 

 tion. |jid)lication, use. and dis|)osal in whole or in part b\ or for the United 

 Slates (■o\ernmcnl is pomitted. 



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