BACTERIAL

BIOLUMINESCENCE
NARMADA BHASKAR 16163090
ARSHNAAZ SAIYED 16163093
Bacterial bioluminescence
 Bacterial Bioluminescence refers to production and emission of
light by bacteria, It is a form of chemiluminescence.
Bioluminescent bacteria with a variety of bioluminescence
emission characteristics have been identified in Vibrionaceae,
Shewanellaceae and Enterobacteriaceae.
 They are predominantly present in sea water, marine sediments,
the surface of decomposing fish , in the gut of marine animals
& also found in terrestrial and freshwater bacteria.
 squid releases
Angler fish (photobacterium)
bioluminescent cloud

terrestrial nematode Hawaiian Bobtail squid

(Photorhabdus luminescens). (Aliivibrio fischeri )
Biochemistry
 The light emission involves expending 6 ATP
molecules for each photon, it is an energetically
expensive process. For this reason, light emission is
not constitutively expressed in bioluminescent
bacteria; it is expressed only when physiologically
necessary.
 Quorum sensing :-Bacteria use quorum sensing to
coordinate gene expression ,leading to
bioluminescence according to the density of their
local population
Examples of bioluminescent Bacteria in which quorum
sensing occurs are Aliivibrio fischeri & Vibrio harveyi.a
 Genetics of bioluminescence
The lux operon is a 9 kilo base fragment that controls bioluminescence through the
catalyzation of enzyme luciferase
Vibrio fischeri 5 genes ( lux CDABE ) have been identified as active in the emission
of visible light
Lux C codes for the enzyme acyl – reductase
Lux D codes for enzyme acyl - transferase
Lux A and Lux B code for the Bacterial luciferase
Lux E makes the protein needed for the enzyme acyl protein synthetase
Lux CDE codes for fatty acid reductase complex
•LuxR and LuxI are involved in the regulating the operon
•At the front of the right lux operon is lux I ,is responsible for synthesizing the
autoinducer
•The left operon is responsible for the expression of lux R which encodes for receptor
protein for the autoinducer
•The receptor autoinducer complex binds a specific sequence of DNA in front of right
operon and activates the Lux structural genes
 Rib is a key component of FMN biosynthetic pathway
 FMN and FMNH2 are involved in the coupled reaction
with bacterial bioluminescence
 Rib is located downstream from luxG and is transcribed in
the opposite direction from the right operon
 Lux Y encodes for an antenna protein called yellow
fluorescent protein (YFP), YFP lowers the energy state of
the product from the luciferase reaction
 This increases the wavelength of visible light
Applications
BIOLUMINESCENT BACTERIA AS BIOSENSORS FOR MONITORING
ENVIRONMENTAL TOXICITY

• Bioluminescence can be used for detection of pollutant like

pesticides and the some of the bacterial species tested includes
Vibrio fischeri, Vibrio harveyi and Pseudomonas fluorescence.
• Natural or genetically modified bacteria can be used for
preparation of biosensor probes which helps in screening and
detection of toxicity.
• The main principal involved behind this is very simple; in case
of optimal condition the bacteria emit light normally but in
presence of toxic substances their luminescence decreases.
Thus presence of toxic molecules can be evaluated.
DETECTION OF SPECIFIC PATHOGENS AND INDICATOR
ORGANISMS

 Lux genes can be introduced into bacteriophage which

will then absorb to specify bacteria and transfer the light
emitting genes to those bacteria
 Bioluminescent assay
1. Rapid (Less than 1 hr)
2. Sensitive (500 bacteria)
3. Demonstrates correlation between cell numbers and
bioluminescence
 Enteric bacteria are used in the food industry as
indicator of poor sanitation condition.
 Lux genes have inserted into phages that infect a broad
range of Enteric bacteria providing reagent for an online
hygiene test with detection limit of 1000 enteric per gm
References
 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/294089775_Biol
uminescent_bacteria_as_biosensors_for_monitoring_env
ironmental_toxicity
 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/000327106
00713172
 https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/3-540-26531-
7_63
 https://www.agriculturejournals.cz/publicFiles/50553.pdf