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Science 9 July 1971:
Vol. 173. no. 3992, pp. 143 - 145
DOI: 10.1126/science.173.3992.143
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Articles

Light Production in the Luminous Fishes Photoblepharon and Anomalops from the Banda Islands

Yata Haneda 1 and Frederick I. Tsuji 2

1 Yokosuka City Museum, Yokosuka, Japan
2 Department of Biophysics and Microbiology, University of Pittsburgh, and Veterans Hospital, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213

The unresolved mechanism of light production in Photoblepharon and Anomalops has been reinvestigated in fresh and preserved material. Based on biochemical evidence obtained with emulsions and cell-free extracts of the organs, especially the stimulation of light with reduced flavin mononucleotide, and on electron microscopy of organ sections showing the presence of numerous bacteria, we conclude that the light is produced by symbiotic luminous bacteria. Because of the continuing failure to cultivate the luminous bacteria and because of their morphology, we suggest that the bacteria are of a primitive type called bacteroids.


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Bacterial Origin of Luminescence in Marine Animals.
G. LEISMAN, D. H. COHN, and K. H. NEALSON (1980)
Science 208, 1271-1273
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