Molecular mechanisms of bioluminescence from marine luminous animals

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26560440
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Biomolecular chemistry
• Research Institution: National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology
• Principal Investigator: Mitani Yasuo 国立研究開発法人産業技術総合研究所, 生物プロセス研究部門, 主任研究員 (10358103)
• Co-Investigator(Renkei-kenkyūsha): OHMIYA Yoshihiro 国立研究開発法人産業技術総合研究所, バイオメディカル研究部門, 研究部門長 (20223951)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: 発光生物 / ルシフェラーゼ

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Luminous animals attracted mankind from the old days. The diversity of luminous animals is very wide, but only a few of them including luminous beetles have been analyzed. It is known that more than 700 genera include luminous animals and 80% of them are living in ocean, but only a few of them have been elucidated. Thus, these luminous animals would be the frontier for the exploration of novel type luminous mechanisms. In this study, we mainly analyzed luminous sea worm and isolated novel type luciferase gene from Japanese fire sea form.

Free Research Field

分子生物学