Evidence that ferritin is associated with light production in the mucus of the marine worm Chaetopterus
The blue glow of the mucus from Chaetopterus involves a photoprotein, iron and flavins. Identity and respective role of these components remain, however, largely unresolved today, likely because of viscosity issues and inhibition of this system by oxidizers conventionally used to track bioluminescen...
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| Format: | Online |
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Nature Publishing Group
2016
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| Online Access: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5103273/ |
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pubmed-51032732016-11-17 Evidence that ferritin is associated with light production in the mucus of the marine worm Chaetopterus Rawat, Renu Deheyn, Dimitri D. Article The blue glow of the mucus from Chaetopterus involves a photoprotein, iron and flavins. Identity and respective role of these components remain, however, largely unresolved today, likely because of viscosity issues and inhibition of this system by oxidizers conventionally used to track bioluminescence activity. Here, we used gentle centrifugation to obtain a mucus supernatant showing no inhibition to oxidizers, allowing for further analysis. We applied conventional chromatographic techniques to isolate major proteins associated with light emission. Luminescence ability of elutriate fractions was tested with hydrogen peroxide to track photoprotein and/or protein-bound chromophore. Fractions producing light contained few major proteins, one with similarity to ferritin. Addition to the mucus of elements with inhibitory/potentiary effect on ferritin ferroxidase activity induced corresponding changes in light production, emphasizing the possible role of ferritin in the worm bioluminescence. DNA of the protein was cloned, sequenced, and expressed, confirming its identity to a Chaetopterus Ferritin (ChF). Both ferric and ferrous iron were found in the mucus, indicating the occurrence of both oxidase and reductase activity. Biochemical analysis showed ChF has strong ferroxidase activity, which could be a source of biological iron and catalytic energy for the worm bioluminescence when coupled to a reduction process with flavins. Nature Publishing Group 2016-11-10 /pmc/articles/PMC5103273/ /pubmed/27830745 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep36854 Text en Copyright © 2016, The Author(s) http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
| repository_type |
Open Access Journal |
| institution_category |
Foreign Institution |
| institution |
US National Center for Biotechnology Information |
| building |
NCBI PubMed |
| collection |
Online Access |
| language |
English |
| format |
Online |
| author |
Rawat, Renu Deheyn, Dimitri D. |
| spellingShingle |
Rawat, Renu Deheyn, Dimitri D. Evidence that ferritin is associated with light production in the mucus of the marine worm Chaetopterus |
| author_facet |
Rawat, Renu Deheyn, Dimitri D. |
| author_sort |
Rawat, Renu |
| title |
Evidence that ferritin is associated with light production in the mucus of the marine worm Chaetopterus |
| title_short |
Evidence that ferritin is associated with light production in the mucus of the marine worm Chaetopterus |
| title_full |
Evidence that ferritin is associated with light production in the mucus of the marine worm Chaetopterus |
| title_fullStr |
Evidence that ferritin is associated with light production in the mucus of the marine worm Chaetopterus |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Evidence that ferritin is associated with light production in the mucus of the marine worm Chaetopterus |
| title_sort |
evidence that ferritin is associated with light production in the mucus of the marine worm chaetopterus |
| description |
The blue glow of the mucus from Chaetopterus involves a photoprotein, iron and flavins. Identity and respective role of these components remain, however, largely unresolved today, likely because of viscosity issues and inhibition of this system by oxidizers conventionally used to track bioluminescence activity. Here, we used gentle centrifugation to obtain a mucus supernatant showing no inhibition to oxidizers, allowing for further analysis. We applied conventional chromatographic techniques to isolate major proteins associated with light emission. Luminescence ability of elutriate fractions was tested with hydrogen peroxide to track photoprotein and/or protein-bound chromophore. Fractions producing light contained few major proteins, one with similarity to ferritin. Addition to the mucus of elements with inhibitory/potentiary effect on ferritin ferroxidase activity induced corresponding changes in light production, emphasizing the possible role of ferritin in the worm bioluminescence. DNA of the protein was cloned, sequenced, and expressed, confirming its identity to a Chaetopterus Ferritin (ChF). Both ferric and ferrous iron were found in the mucus, indicating the occurrence of both oxidase and reductase activity. Biochemical analysis showed ChF has strong ferroxidase activity, which could be a source of biological iron and catalytic energy for the worm bioluminescence when coupled to a reduction process with flavins. |
| publisher |
Nature Publishing Group |
| publishDate |
2016 |
| url |
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5103273/ |
| _version_ |
1613720886656892928 |