STUDIES ON BIOLUMINESCENCE. 



X. Carbon Dioxide Production during Luminescence of 

 Cypridina Luciferin. 



By E. NEWTON HARVEY. 

 (From the Physiological Laboratory, Princeton University, Princeton.) 



(Received for publication, September 5, 1919.) 



All luminous animals require oxygen for luminescence but it is 

 not known whether they give off CO2 as a result of the luminescence. 

 Luminous bacteria produce carbon dioxide but this is no doubt the 

 carbon dioxide of respiration. Even if we could prove that luminous 

 bacteria produced more carbon dioxide than certain non-luminous 

 bacteria, this would not necessarily mean that the excess carbon 

 dioxide was produced during luminescence. Different organisms pro- 

 duce very different quantities of CO2 per body weight and in no 

 necessary relation to luminescence. In 1855, Fabre^ pubHshed results 

 which indicated that non-luminous portions of a mushroom, Agaricus 

 olearius, produced less CO2 (2.88 cc. of CO2 per gm. in 36 hours at 

 12°C.) than luminous parts (4.41 cc. of CO2 per gm. in 36 hours at 

 12°C.). There are, however, many reasons besides luminescence why 

 one part of a plant might produce more CO2 than another. 



There are also many facts which indicate that luminescence is in 

 no way connected with the respiration of cells. This is quite obvious 

 in the case of animal cells where respiration is continuous and lumi- 

 nescence appears only as the result of stimulation of the cell. But 

 even in bacteria where respiration and luminescence are both con- 

 tinuous, the two processes are distinct. Some luminous bacteria are 

 facultative anaerobes and will multiply and respire but will not 

 luminesce in the absence of oxygen. ^ McKenney^ found that Bacillus 

 phosphorescens will grow rapidly in 0.5 per cent ether without pro- 



1 Fabre, J. H., Am. Sc. Nat., 1855, iv, 179. 



2 Beyerinck, M. W., Arch. Neer., 1889, xxiii, 416. 



3 McKenney, R. E. B., Proc. Biol. Sac. Washington, 1902, xv, 213. 



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