Firefly genomes illuminate parallel origins of bioluminescence in beetles
Name
elife-36495-v1.pdf
Description
Published version
Size
13.94 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
9b47cf7f16d511e9f417c38a7f3059b6
Author(s)
Fallon, Timothy R
Weng, Jing-Ke
Date Issued
October 16, 2018
Journal
eLife
Publisher
eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd
Citation
Fallon, Timothy R. et al. "Firefly genomes illuminate parallel origins of bioluminescence in beetles." eLife 7 (2018): e36495 © 2019 The Author(s)
Version
Final published version
Abstract
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.
MIT Department
Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Biology
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.36495
