American firefly Photoinus pyralis glowing courtship scene.
A new study of the firefly genome by a joint U.S.-Japan research team has found that the glowing ability of fireflies is actually caused by repeated genetic errors. The research was done by the MIT Waiheide Institute, Cornell University, Japan Institute of Basic Biology, Central Japan University and other units, and the research results were published in the online edition of the scientific journal "eLife" on October 16.
Fireflies have attracted human attention thousands of years ago due to the light brought by the belly light emitter, and various firefly cultures have been derived. The development of modern science has given human beings a deeper understanding of this luminous creature. Scientists generally believe that fireflies glow as an act of courtship.
But according to the latest research by Scientists in the United States and Japan, the eye-catching courtship ability of fireflies actually comes from the results of genetic replication errors when ancient ancestral cells divided.
Fireflies in the forest. Photography by James Gould-Bourn
Fireflies are able to emit light because they have luciferin and luciferase in their glowing cells. The research team sequenced the two varieties of "Pingjia Firefly", which is representative of Japan, and "photinus pyralis", which are widely distributed in the United States.
They found that the luciferase gene of fireflies was very similar to the fatty acid metabolism enzyme gene. This fatty acid metabolism enzyme gene is common to many organisms. But when the cells in the fireflies ancestors divided and made one-to-one replication, the gene was copied incorrectly. Repeated false replication accumulation causes this fatty acid metabolism enzyme gene to mutate into a luciferase gene.
The process by which erroneous gene replication occurs in the evolution of fireflies. Photo: Institute of Basic Biology, Japan
The phenomenon of biological autoluminescence has always attracted much attention from the academic community, and most of the research results come from luminescent beetles, especially fluorescence insects. Scientists have studied the spontaneous glowing mechanism of fireflies relatively well, and their results have been widely used in biological and medical fields, such as as a genetic marker to detect the efficacy of anti-cancer drugs.
But there are still many unsolved mysteries about the evolutionary origin of fireflies. One of the authors of the study paper, Yuichi Oba, an associate professor at Chubu University in Japan, said that taking this research as an opportunity, it is possible to understand the evolutionary history of luminous organisms.
Associate Professor Yuichi Oba, Department of Applied Biology, Chubu University, Japan.
It is reported that the two fireflies that are the subject of the study have differentiated more than 100 million years ago, indicating that their luminescent gene mutations are still earlier.
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