The mysterious green glow of worms living at the bottom of the Atlantic in the vicinity of Bermuda turned out to be the product of the work of a unique set of genes that has no analogues in the genomes of all other living beings on Earth. Scientists who have published an article in the journal PLoS One write about this.
“Every summer and fall, on the third night after the full moon, exactly 22 minutes after sunset, the females of these worms begin to glow and perform a complex dance, attracting the attention of the males. You might think they have a watch to help them not miss out on their performance at this landmark underwater show,”says Mercer Brugler of the City of Technology College of New York, USA.
Many nocturnal and marine animals, for example, fireflies, jellyfish, devil fish and many other invertebrates living in the depths, as well as mushrooms, can glow green, blue or even red, producing beams of light particles during complex chemical reactions.
In recent years, scientists have created several transgenic animal species that have the jellyfish gene GFP embedded in their DNA, which makes them glow green, or similar genes from algae or fungi. This technique allows biologists to monitor how diseases spread throughout the body and how various cells, organs, and genes are working. On their basis, scientists have already managed to create "green" dogs, cats, mice, chickens and other animals.
These genes are so important to science that the Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded for the discovery of GFP in 2008. Scientists are actively looking for other variants of luminous proteins that can help us penetrate deeper into areas of the body that cannot be seen even with the most powerful microscope.
Bruegler and his colleagues have expanded the arsenal with another similar gene, studying the structure of DNA and RNA of the extremely unusual inhabitants of the Atlantic floor, the Bermuda fireworms (Odontosyllis enopla).
Their green-blue glow has been one of the main mysteries of the Bermuda Triangle for almost five centuries. According to the Spanish chronicles, Christopher Columbus and his team were the first to see him, sailing to the shores of the New World back in 1492. They noticed that mysterious lights "danced" at the bottom of the ocean, similar to the wavering flame of a candle.
Only at the beginning of the 20th century, naturalists realized that sailors did not experience hallucinations, but watched how the males and females of Odontosyllis enopla choose partners for procreation and throw eggs and milk into the Atlantic waters.
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Scientists have long been interested in the genes responsible for this glow, but their study was complicated by the inaccessibility of these worms and the fact that they glow only during wedding nights and for a very short time.
Bruegler and his colleagues solved this problem by going on an expedition to Bermuda, where they collected several mature females at the time of laying. Geneticists extracted cell samples from them and analyzed which genes were most active in them at the moment when the worms began their "dance".
As it turned out, Odontosyllis enopla were similar in this respect to fireflies and many other luminous animals that use the enzyme luciferase to produce light. This substance interacts with another organic compound, luciferin, oxidizing it and producing beams of photons.
Interestingly, the luciferase of Bermuda worms has a unique structure, which has no analogues in the cells of any other living creature capable of luminescence. This, as the scientists note, significantly expands the arsenal of biologists - now they have the opportunity to create a whole class of new luminous labels that can be used to mark different genes and proteins in the cells of humans and laboratory animals.