Meeting Abstract

1.6  Monday, Jan. 4  A Novel Luciferase from the Deep-sea Cephalopod Vampyroteuthis infernalis POWERS, M.L.*; HADDOCK, S.H.D.; University of California, Santa Cruz; Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute mpowers@mbari.org

Bioluminescence is almost ubiquitous in the deep-sea environment, where organisms use luciferase enzymes to catalyze light emission from their associated luciferin substrates. Luciferases are a diverse group of proteins which mediate luminescence emission in many deep-sea taxa including chaetognaths, scyphozoans, copepods, and cephalopods. However there are only a limited number of chemical studies examining their unique properties and applications as molecular tools, possibly due to the difficulty in obtaining intact animals from depth. In this study we investigate the luciferase-luciferin system of the deep-sea cephalopod Vampyroteuthis infernalis, sole member of the Order Vampyromorpha. Light is emitted from fin-based photophores and from all eight arm tips, from which bioluminescent material is secreted. These light organs were harvested from individual specimens collected in the oxygen-minimum zone, between 500 -1000 m, off the coast of Monterey, CA using remotely operated vehicles (ROVs). Here we describe the purification methods and some biochemical characteristics of this novel luciferase, which utilizes the widely distributed luciferin coelenterazine.