Robust red-emission spectra and yields in firefly bioluminescence against temperature changes

Abstract

We measured the quantitative spectra of firefly (Photinus pyralis) bioluminescence at various temperatures to investigate the temperature dependence of the luciferin-luciferase reaction at 15–34 °C. The quantitative spectra were decomposed very well into red (1.9 eV), orange (2.0 eV), and green (2.2 eV) Gaussian components. The intensity of the green component was the only temperature sensitive quantity that linearly decreased as the temperature increased at pH 7 and 8. We found the quantitative bioluminescence spectra to be robust below 2.0 eV against temperature and other experimental conditions. The revealed robustness of the red emissions should be useful for quantitative applications such as adenosine-5′-triphosphate detection.