luciferase

[loo-sif-uh-reys]

noun

Biochemistry.

1. an enzyme in bioluminescent organisms that catalyzes the oxidation of luciferin, a light-emitting pigment.

Word History and Origins

Origin of luciferase¹

First recorded in 1885–90; lucifer(in) ( def. ) + -ase ( def. )

Example Sentences

To this end, DeLeo said she and some of her co-authors are working on creating a genetic test to determine if an octocoral species has functional copies of the genes underlying luciferase, an enzyme involved in bioluminescence.

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Like all bioluminescent organisms, marine ostracods and terrestrial fireflies both rely on a specialized enzyme called luciferase to produce their signature glow.

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In order to investigate how mammalian cells' immune responses interact with and are modulated by interactions with phages, researchers applied the well-studied phage T4 to mammalian cells in vitro and analyzed the cellular responses using luciferase reporter and antibody microarray assays.

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There has been limited research on bioluminescence and luciferase, which is sometimes extracted for medical science.

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Oakley and Hensley, in collaboration with Elizabeth Torres, an evolutionary biologist at California State University, Los Angeles, have sequenced the ostracod genes for luciferase, the enzyme that adds oxygen to a molecule called luciferin to make light in all bioluminescent organisms.

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