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1 Biological Laboratories, Harvard University, 16 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138
The bioluminescent marine dinoflagellate Gonyaulax polyedra manifests similar circadian rhythms of bioluminescence capacity and extractable luciferase activity, both with maxima during the night phase. The immediate biochemical basis of the luciferase rhythm was investigated, with the following findings:
(1) The rhythm was present no matter which of several mechanical extraction methods and extraction media (including 5 M guanidine) were employed. The rhythm was present even in a crude cell homogenate. Thus the rhythm is likely not one of extractibility unless luciferase is inactivated while being covalently bound to cell debris during day phase.
(2) Mixing experiments, ammonium sulfate precipitation, dialysis, and sucrose velocity gradient centrifugation showed that no dissociable activator or inhibitor of luciferase caused the rhythm.
Two possible hypotheses remain untested: (a) the occurrence of de novo luciferase synthesis and destruction, (b) the attachment (perhaps covalent) and detachment of an activity-modifying moiety.
The luminescence capacity rhythm is primarily a rhythm of quantity of light from cell flashes. Cell flashes probably originate from extractable particles termed scintillons which flash during assay. The relationship of the luciferase rhythm to the luminescence capacity rhythm is discussed from this view.
Note added in proof: For recent findings on the luminescence capacity rhythm see R. Christianson and B. M. Sweeney, 1972. Sensitivity to stimulation, a component of the circadian rhythm in luminescence in Gonyaulax. Plant Physiol., 49: 994-997.
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