Fireflies have been used in several studies of bioluminescence. In particular they may be used in assays to determine toxicity pathways because bioluminescence can quantitatively measure a wide range of biological activities.
The bioluminescent organism, Photinus pyralis firefly is the source of firefly lantern extract. The luciferase enzyme is 60 kDa enzyme which lacks prosthetic group and bound metal in its structure. The N-terminal harbors residues crucial for the bioluminescent activity and the C-terminal possess peroxisome targeting motif.
Firefly Lantern Extract containing luciferase catalyzes oxidative decarboxylation of luciferin (LH2) in the presence of ATP, oxygen and Mg2+ to yield a light-emitter oxyluciferin.
