Optical, Biochemical, and Molecular Characterization of New Light Producing Systems from Marine and Terrestrial Organisms, with Emphasis on Violet/Blue
Abstract
Biological light (bio/chemi-luminescence, fluorescence) is often used as a bioreporter for diverseapplications in biotechnology, biomedicine and bioengineering. A majority of these light signalsare naturally green in color, and are then engineered to reach the edges of the visible spectrum(violet/blue, or red/near-IR). Here, this proposal aims at finding in nature new of such biologicallight systems at the edges of the visible spectrum, and with large Stokes shift (bandgap) forfluorescence. We expect new chemistries and chemical compounds to be identified, with no needfor further engineering of spectral properties. We will study seven model organisms alreadyavailable and shown from preliminary studies to have interesting spectral properties. Thesemodel organisms are diverse, marine and terrestrial, and include species that arebioluminescent/fluorescent, as well as fluorescent only. Two of these species (a luminous marineworm and a luminous brittlestar) are subject to previous AFOSR studies and will be continuedand terminated here. We are excited to introduce two new systems from luminous coelenterates(sea-anemone-like organism), one being deep-sea and the other parasitic. Their light productionis unique in being multi-modal and with large Stokes shift. As for the three other systems, theyare fluorescent only and consist of nudibranch mucus, and molecules from plant seeds. In eachcase, we will apply conventional techniques routinely done in the Deheyn lab to extract insolution active (chemiluminescent and/or fluorescent) compounds of the light producingsystems, which will then be purified and concentrated by chromatography and gelelectrophoresis. Sequencing (for proteinic compounds) or mass spectrometry or nuclear magneticresonance (for small molecules) will be used for their identification.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- May 02, 2017
- Source ID
- FA95501710189
Entities
People
- Dimitri D Deheyn
Organizations
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research
- United States Air Force
- University of California, San Diego