Aequorin is a calcium-activated photoprotein isolated from the hydrozoan Aequorea victoria. Its bioluminescence was studied decades before the protein was isolated from the animal by Osamu Shimomura in 1962. In the animal, the protein occurs together with the green fluorescent protein to produce green light by resonant energy transfer, while aequorin by itself generates blue light.
Discussions of "jellyfish DNA" that can make "glowing" animals often refer to transgenic animals that express the green fluorescent protein, not aequorin, although both originally derive from the same animal.
Apoaequorin, the protein portion of aequorin, is an ingredient in the dietary supplement Prevagen. The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has charged the maker with false advertising for its memory improvement claims.
Work on aequorin began with E. Newton Harvey in 1921. Though Harvey was unable to demonstrate a classical luciferase-luciferin reaction, he showed that water could produce light from dried photocytes and that light could be produced even in the absence of oxygen. Later, Osamu Shimomura began work into the bioluminescence of Aequorea in 1961. This involved tedious harvesting of tens of thousands of jellyfish from the docks in Friday Harbor, Washington. It was determined that light could be produced from extracts with seawater, and more specifically, with calcium. It was also noted during the extraction the animal creates green light due to the presence of the green fluorescent protein, which changes the native blue light of aequorin to green.
While the main focus of his work was on the bioluminescence, Shimomura and two others, Martin Chalfie and Roger Tsien, were awarded the Nobel Prize in 2008 for their work on green fluorescent proteins.
Aequorin is a holoprotein composed of two distinct units, the apoprotein that is called apoaequorin, which has an approximate molecular weight of 21 kDa, and the prosthetic group coelenterazine, the luciferin.
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Aequorea victoria, also sometimes called the crystal jelly, is a bioluminescent hydrozoan jellyfish, or hydromedusa, that is found off the west coast of North America. The species is best known as the source of aequorin (a photoprotein), and green fluorescent protein (GFP); two proteins involved in bioluminescence. Their discoverers, Osamu Shimomura and colleagues, won the 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their work on GFP.
Chemiluminescence (also chemoluminescence) is the emission of light (luminescence) as the result of a chemical reaction. There may also be limited emission of heat. Given reactants A and B, with an excited intermediate ◊, [A]{} + [B] -> {}[\lozenge ]{} -> {}[products]{} + light For example, if [A] is luminol and [B] is hydrogen peroxide in the presence of a suitable catalyst we have: \underset{luminol}{C8H7N3O2} + \underset{hydrogen\ peroxide}{H2O2} -> 3-APA[\lozenge] -> {3-APA} + light where: 3-APA is 3-aminophthalate 3-APA[◊] is the vibronic excited state fluorescing as it decays to a lower energy level.
Luciferase is a generic term for the class of oxidative enzymes that produce bioluminescence, and is usually distinguished from a photoprotein. The name was first used by Raphaël Dubois who invented the words luciferin and luciferase, for the substrate and enzyme, respectively. Both words are derived from the Latin word lucifer, meaning "lightbearer", which in turn is derived from the Latin words for "light" (lux) and "to bring or carry" (ferre).
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