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July 19, 2019

Firefly genomes illuminate parallel origins of bioluminescence in beetles.

Authors: Fallon, Timothy R and Lower, Sarah E and Chang, Ching-Ho and Bessho-Uehara, Manabu and Martin, Gavin J and Bewick, Adam J and Behringer, Megan and Debat, Humberto J and Wong, Isaac and Day, John C and Suvorov, Anton and Silva, Christian J and Stanger-Hall, Kathrin F and Hall, David W and Schmitz, Robert J and Nelson, David R and Lewis, Sara M and Shigenobu, Shuji and Bybee, Seth M and Larracuente, Amanda M and Oba, Yuichi and Weng, Jing-Ke

Fireflies and their luminous courtships have inspired centuries of scientific study. Today firefly luciferase is widely used in biotechnology, but the evolutionary origin of bioluminescence within beetles remains unclear. To shed light on this long-standing question, we sequenced the genomes of two firefly species that diverged over 100 million-years-ago: the North American Photinus pyralis and Japanese Aquatica lateralis. To compare bioluminescent origins, we also sequenced the genome of a related click beetle, the Caribbean Ignelater luminosus, with bioluminescent biochemistry near-identical to fireflies, but anatomically unique light organs, suggesting the intriguing hypothesis of parallel gains of bioluminescence. Our analyses support independent gains of bioluminescence in fireflies and click beetles, and provide new insights into the genes, chemical defenses, and symbionts that evolved alongside their luminous lifestyle.© 2018, Fallon et al.

Journal: eLife
DOI: 10.7554/eLife.36495
Year: 2018

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