Firefly genomes illuminate parallel origins of bioluminescence in beetles

First author: Timothy R Fallon; Affiliations: Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research (Whitehead生物医学研究所): Cambridge, United States

Corresponding author: Jing-Ke Weng

Fireflies (萤火虫) and their luminous (发光的) courtships (求爱期) have inspired centuries of scientific study. Today firefly luciferase (荧光素酶) is widely used in biotechnology, but the evolutionary origin of bioluminescence (生物发光) within beetles (甲虫) 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 (叩甲), the Caribbean (加勒比海的) Ignelater luminosus, with bioluminescent biochemistry near-identical to fireflies, but anatomically (解剖学上) 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 (化学防御), and symbionts (共生体) that evolved alongside their luminous lifestyle.

萤火虫在求爱期会发出荧光，这吸引了科学家们数个世纪的眼光。现如今，荧光素酶广泛应用于生物技术中，但甲虫生物发光的起源还不清楚。为了研究这个问题，本文对两个100百万年前分化的萤火虫：北美萤火虫和日本萤火虫进行了全基因组测序，同时还对萤火虫的近缘物种加勒比海叩甲虫进行了全基因组测序，叩甲虫具有与萤火虫近乎一致的生物发光生化物质，但是在解剖学上具有属于自己独特的发光器官，说明了在不同的甲虫中生物发光特征的平行获取。本文的研究支持在萤火虫和叩甲虫中独立的生物发光演化，同时也揭示了这些发光甲虫中某些基因、化学防御及共生体随着发光生活史共同演化的特征。

通讯：Jing-Ke Weng（http://wi.mit.edu/people/faculty/weng）

个人简介：1999-2003年，浙江大学，生物技术学士；2003-2009年，普渡大学，生物化学博士。

研究方向：植物中化学多样性的起源与演化，实验室：http://wenglab.wi.mit.edu。

doi: https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.36495.001

Journal: eLife

Published date: 16 October, 2018

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