Cargando…

The Spectral Distribution of Firefly Light. II

The in vivo peak emission wavelengths of bioluminescence are reported for 15 species of American fireflies. A spectrophotometric study of the dorsal light organs of 155 specimens of the Jamaican firefly Pyrophorus plagiophthalamus showed three distinct color distributions with peak emission waveleng...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Biggley, W. H., Lloyd, J. E., Seliger, H. H.
Formato: Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: The Rockefeller University Press 1967
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2225752/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6034763
_version_ 1782149699769204736
author Biggley, W. H.
Lloyd, J. E.
Seliger, H. H.
author_facet Biggley, W. H.
Lloyd, J. E.
Seliger, H. H.
author_sort Biggley, W. H.
collection PubMed
description The in vivo peak emission wavelengths of bioluminescence are reported for 15 species of American fireflies. A spectrophotometric study of the dorsal light organs of 155 specimens of the Jamaican firefly Pyrophorus plagiophthalamus showed three distinct color distributions with peak emission wavelengths at 550.1 ± 1.5 mµ, 556.8 ± 1.4 mµ, and 562.4 ± 1.0 mµ. Similar spectral measurements of 35 ventral light organs of the same insects gave peak emission wavelengths ranging from 547 through 594 mµ. This is a wider distribution than the total range of all 34 species of firefly studied to date. There was no obvious correlation between the colors of the ventral and dorsal light organs. It appears that P. plagiophthalamus is a special case in which the luciferase enzyme is not only different among members of the same species, but it may be different for the dorsal and ventral light organs in a single individual. A minimum of six different luciferase molecules for P. plagiophthalamus ventral light organs is proposed. The statistical precision in making these spectrophotometric measurements is discussed.
format Text
id pubmed-2225752
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 1967
publisher The Rockefeller University Press
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-22257522008-04-23 The Spectral Distribution of Firefly Light. II Biggley, W. H. Lloyd, J. E. Seliger, H. H. J Gen Physiol Article The in vivo peak emission wavelengths of bioluminescence are reported for 15 species of American fireflies. A spectrophotometric study of the dorsal light organs of 155 specimens of the Jamaican firefly Pyrophorus plagiophthalamus showed three distinct color distributions with peak emission wavelengths at 550.1 ± 1.5 mµ, 556.8 ± 1.4 mµ, and 562.4 ± 1.0 mµ. Similar spectral measurements of 35 ventral light organs of the same insects gave peak emission wavelengths ranging from 547 through 594 mµ. This is a wider distribution than the total range of all 34 species of firefly studied to date. There was no obvious correlation between the colors of the ventral and dorsal light organs. It appears that P. plagiophthalamus is a special case in which the luciferase enzyme is not only different among members of the same species, but it may be different for the dorsal and ventral light organs in a single individual. A minimum of six different luciferase molecules for P. plagiophthalamus ventral light organs is proposed. The statistical precision in making these spectrophotometric measurements is discussed. The Rockefeller University Press 1967-07-01 /pmc/articles/PMC2225752/ /pubmed/6034763 Text en Copyright © 1967 by The Rockefeller University Press This article is distributed under the terms of an Attribution–Noncommercial–Share Alike–No Mirror Sites license for the first six months after the publication date (see http://www.rupress.org/terms). After six months it is available under a Creative Commons License (Attribution–Noncommercial–Share Alike 4.0 Unported license, as described at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Biggley, W. H.
Lloyd, J. E.
Seliger, H. H.
The Spectral Distribution of Firefly Light. II
title The Spectral Distribution of Firefly Light. II
title_full The Spectral Distribution of Firefly Light. II
title_fullStr The Spectral Distribution of Firefly Light. II
title_full_unstemmed The Spectral Distribution of Firefly Light. II
title_short The Spectral Distribution of Firefly Light. II
title_sort spectral distribution of firefly light. ii
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2225752/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6034763
work_keys_str_mv AT biggleywh thespectraldistributionoffireflylightii
AT lloydje thespectraldistributionoffireflylightii
AT seligerhh thespectraldistributionoffireflylightii
AT biggleywh spectraldistributionoffireflylightii
AT lloydje spectraldistributionoffireflylightii
AT seligerhh spectraldistributionoffireflylightii