Characterisation of the luciferase gene and the 5′ upstream region in the European glow-worm Lampyris noctiluca (Coleoptera: Lampyridae)

Abstract

Beetle luciferase,a mono-oxygenase within the AMP-binding superfamily,is synthesized by bioluminant beetles in concentrated levels within specialised cells clustering in the abdominal light organs. In vivo expression of luciferase has been rarely investigated and little is known about the role of enhancers and promoters in the expression of this gene. In order to investigate the gene structure and potential control of gene expression the luciferase gene along with 6 kb of upstream genomic sequence was characterised from the European glow-worm Lampyris noctiluca. Three TATA box motifs and a CAAT repeat were identified, two of these were found to be conserved in two other species of bioluminescent beetle. Although no enhancer regions were identified in the upstream sequence a region coding for a putative transposase DDE domain was identified 686 bp from the start codon of the luciferase gene. Although disrupted, the open reading frame also shared extensive identity to an mRNA transcript from the mosquito Anopheles gambiae. The remnants of an ancient transposase provide support for an ancestral luciferase transposition/insertion event that may have occurred within the genome of bioluminescent beetles.