NICOP - Taxonomy and Mechanistic Studies of Bioluminescent Fungi
Abstract
Despite fungal bioluminescence has been forgotten for a long time, many achievements have been made in the last decade, such"" as the significant increase of described species, the evidence of the involvement of enzymes in a common mechanism for all"" fungi, the circadian emission of light and the proposal a biological function for it, and finally the discovery of the fungal lucif""erin. These findings did not end with the interest in this system, but increased the number of questions that could be asked, since" plants also biosynthesize the fungal luciferin and cannot emit light just because they do not express the luciferase. Are there plants with even higher content of luciferin than fungi? Is the luciferin in compartmentalized living fungal cells the same found in extracts? Is the luciferase in all fungi identical with no variation? Would be possible to produce a bioluminescent plant with high emission of light?
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Sep 01, 2017
- Source ID
- N629091712103
Entities
People
- Cassius Stevani
Organizations
- Office of Naval Research
- United States Navy