KINETICS OF BACTERIAL BIOLUMINESCENCE AND THE FLUORESCENT TRANSIENT

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Abstract
— The addition of FMNH2 to Vibrio harveyi luciferase at 2°C in the presence of tetradecanal results in the formation of a highly fluorescent transient species with a spectral distribution indistinguishable from that of the bioluminescence. The bioluminescence reaches maximum intensity in 1.5 s and decays in a complex manner with exponential components of 10-1s-1, 7 × 10-3s-1, and 7 × 10 4s-1. The fluorescent transient rises exponentially at 7 × 10-2s-3 and decays at 3 × 10-4s-1. The slowest bioluminescence component, comprising the bulk of the bioluminescence, decays at twice the rate of the fluorescent transient under all variations of reaction conditions: concentration of reactants, temperature 2–20°C, and aldehyde chain length—decanal, dodecanal and tetradecanal. The activation energy for both the slowest bioluminescence decay and the transient fluorescence decay is 80 kJ-mol-1. An energy transfer scheme is proposed to explain the results where two distinct chemically energized species utilize the fluorescent transient as emitter for the slower bioluminescences, and for the faster process a fluorophore present in the protein preparation. Kinetic observations suggest that typical preparations of V. harveyi luciferase comprise 15% active protein.