title: Characterization of luciferases and its paralogue in the Panamanian luminous click beetle Pyrophorus angustus: a click beetle luciferase lacks the fatty acyl-CoA synthetic activity.
abstract: Two luciferase genes (dPaLuc and vPaLuc) and one paralogue of luciferase (PaLL) were isolated from the Panamanian luminous click beetle, Pyrophorus angustus (Elateridae, Pyrophorinae). The transcripts of dPaLuc and vPaLuc were predominantly detected in the body parts with dorsal photophore and ventral photophore, respectively, and the transcript of PaLL was detected in both parts. The gene products of dPaLuc and vPaLuc possessed luminescence activity with firefly luciferin (lambda(max)=536 and 566 nm, respectively) but did not show significant activity of fatty acyl-CoA synthesis. On the other hand, the gene product of PaLL had fatty acyl-CoA synthetic activity with very weak luminescence activity. The catalytic properties of click beetle luciferase are different from our previous results that firefly luciferase has both luminescence activity and fatty acyl-CoA synthetic activity. These results suggested that the ancestral fatty acyl-CoA synthetase in the Pyrophorinae lineage has undergone gene duplication event, followed by specialization of one copy in luciferase. Subsequently, the luciferase was duplicated again and the two copies diverged in their luminescent color and expression pattern.
authors.affiliation: Graduate School of Bioagricultural Sciences, Nagoya University, Nagoya 464-8601, Japan. oba@agr.nagoya-u.ac.jp
authors.forename: Yuichi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Oba
authors.forename: Mizuho
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kumazaki
authors.forename: Satoshi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Inouye
mesh_terms: D000214:Acyl Coenzyme A / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D000375:Aging / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001499:Bayes Theorem; D001517:Coleoptera / Q000187:drug effects / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000235:genetics; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D005227:Fatty Acids / Q000494:pharmacology; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation / Q000187:drug effects; D008156:Luciferases / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000378:metabolism*; D049449:Luminescence; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010176:Panama; D010802:Phylogeny; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D013057:Spectrum Analysis
chemical_list: D000214:Acyl Coenzyme A; D005227:Fatty Acids; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D008156:Luciferases