Facts about Bioluminescence

The cookiecutter shark uses bioluminescence for camouflage, but a small patch on its underbelly remains dark and appears as a small fish to large predatory fish like tuna and mackerel.

Bioluminescence is the production and emission of light by a living organism as the result of a chemical reaction during which chemical energy is converted to light energy.

Bioluminescence occurs in a great diversity of taxa, including bacteria, fungi, dinoflagellates, annelids, ctenophores (comb jellies), cnidarians (jellyfish), mollusks, crustaceans, echinoderms, and insects, and fish.

Bioluminescence should not be confused with fluorescence or phosphorescence.

The term bioluminescence originates from the Greek bios for "living" and the Latin lumen for "light."

The honey mushroom attracts insects using bioluminescence so that the insects will help disseminate the fungus' spores into the environment.

Bioluminescence is generated by an enzyme-catalyzed chemoluminescence reaction, wherein the pigment luciferin is oxidized by the enzyme luciferase.

Some crustaceans send out coded messages by bioluminescence to their own species when it is time to mate (Haddock et al.

All cells produce some form of bioluminescence within the electromagnetic spectrum, but most is neither visible nor noticeable to the naked eye.

Bioluminescence is used as a lure to attract prey by several deep sea fish, such as the anglerfish.

Luciferase systems have also been harnessed for biomedical research using bioluminescence imaging.

Bioluminescence is thought to play a direct role in communication between bacteria.

Every organism's bioluminescence is unique in wavelength, duration, timing, and regularity of flashes.

Bioluminescence aids the survival and reproduction of individual organisms through such means as camouflage and defense, attraction of prey and mates, and communication.

Bioluminescence is primarily a marine phenomena, especially at mid-ocean depths.

Below follows a list of organisms which have been observed to have visible bioluminescence.

Bioluminescence is the predominate source of light in the deep ocean (Haddock et al.

Vibrio symbiosis with numerous marine invertebrates and fish, namely the Hawaiian Bobtail Squid (Euprymna scolopes) is a key model organism for symbiosis, quorum sensing, and bioluminescence.

In bacteria, the expression of genes related to bioluminescence is controlled by an operon (key nucleotide sequence) called the Lux operon.