Organism of Origin
Luciferase is an eukaryotic enzyme originally found in fireflies.
Protein Structure
The total number of amino acids in the protein is 548. The different include alpha helices (seen in pink) and beta sheets (seen in gold). There are a mix of hydrophobic and hydrophilic amino acids that impact protein function. The color emitted by the enzyme is in the wild type and in the mutant due to changes in protein folding.
Function
Luciferase catabolizes luciferin, which forms a bio-luminescent product. This reaction consumes ATP and oxygen. Luciferase is an oxidoreducase.
Significance
Luciferase is an enzyme commonly used in imaging in the biotechnology industry. A cell line of interest can be genetically engineered to express this enzyme by using a viral vector. Once the model organism has been inoculated with the cell line of interest, luciferin can be administer to track localization and growth. If that cell line of interest was a cancer cell line, then a biopharmaceutical treatment could be tested for reduction in tumor size and metastasis.
References
https://www.rcsb.org/structure/2D1S
http://pdb101.rcsb.org/motm/78
