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Echinobase
ECB-ART-49537
Sci Rep 2020 Oct 20;101:17724. doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-73446-w.
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A putative chordate luciferase from a cosmopolitan tunicate indicates convergent bioluminescence evolution across phyla.

Tessler M , Gaffney JP , Oliveira AG , Guarnaccia A , Dobi KC , Gujarati NA , Galbraith M , Mirza JD , Sparks JS , Pieribone VA , Wood RJ , Gruber DF .


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Pyrosomes are tunicates in the phylum Chordata, which also contains vertebrates. Their gigantic blooms play important ecological and biogeochemical roles in oceans. Pyrosoma, meaning "fire-body", derives from their brilliant bioluminescence. The biochemistry of this light production is unknown, but has been hypothesized to be bacterial in origin. We found that mixing coelenterazine-a eukaryote-specific luciferin-with Pyrosoma atlanticum homogenate produced light. To identify the bioluminescent machinery, we sequenced P. atlanticum transcriptomes and found a sequence match to a cnidarian luciferase (RLuc). We expressed this novel luciferase (PyroLuc) and, combined with coelenterazine, it produced light. A similar gene was recently predicted from a bioluminescent brittle star, indicating that RLuc-like luciferases may have evolved convergently from homologous dehalogenases across phyla (Cnidaria, Echinodermata, and Chordata). This report indicates that a widespread gene may be able to functionally converge, resulting in bioluminescence across animal phyla, and describes and characterizes the first putative chordate luciferase.

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References [+] :
Archer, Pyrosome consumption by benthic organisms during blooms in the northeast Pacific and Gulf of Mexico. 2018, Pubmed