Factors and Biochemistry 



of Bacterial Luminescence 



Bernard L. Strehler" 



Department of Biochemistry and Institute for Research in Biophysics, 



University of Chicago, Chicago, lUinois 



The blue-green glow emitted by various species of luminous bac- 

 teria has been a recurrent object of curiosity among biologists, chem- 

 ists, and physicists for several scores of years. For workers in each of 

 these fields, the phenomenon of "cold light" emission poses a special 

 set of problems. The biologist is more interested in the evolution, 

 selective advantage, and relation of light production to other functions 

 of organisms; the chemist concerns himself with the mechanism of 

 excitation and the chemical identity of the reacting molecules; while 

 the physicist is primarily interested in the energetics and kinetics of 

 the process and the effect of well-defined environmental variables on 

 light emission. This discussion is an attempt to assess present knowl- 

 edge of bacterial luminescence touching on all three of these fields. 

 Of necessity the main emphasis here will be placed on the newly 

 available information on the biochemistry of the process, both because 

 this is the least alien to the writer and because it furnishes a starting 

 point for discussion of the other aspects of the problem. 



A prodigious amount of work has been expended in studying the 

 effect of various factors on in vivo bacterial luminescence, and a co- 

 gent summary and analysis of these works is presented in Harvey's 

 Bioluminescence (1952). Among the more instructive earlier findings, 

 mainly on salt water species, bearing on this present discussion are 

 the following: 



" Fels Fund. 



209 



