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On the origin of impulse bioluminescence in eukaryotes Yulii Labas2; Taisia Telegina3; Vassili A Zakhartchenko*1; Mikhail Matz4 (1) CCMB, University of Southern California, 2250 Alcazar Street, CSA 103, Los Angeles, CA 90033, USA; (2) Institute of Ecology and Evolution, Russian Academy of Sciences, Leninsky Prospect 33, 117071 Moscow, Russia; (3) Institute of Biochemistry, Russian Academy of Sciences, Leninsky Prospect 33, 117071 Moscow, Russia; (4) Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, Russian Academy of Sciences, Miklukho-Maklaya 16/10, 117871 Moscow, Russia      *(zakhartc@hsc.usc.edu) Bioluminescent systems (BS) originated polyphyletically in over 30 different taxonomic groups of organisms. Only mutations producing easily visible luminescence could become targets for selection, since it is the visual behavior of animals that should be responsible for BS selection in most cases. Therefore, precursor systems (luciferins, luciferases and triggering mechanisms), which gave rise to BS, should pre-exist to provide a basis for its sudden appearance. Since most luciferins, photoproteins and several luciferases exhibit prominent antioxidant properties, it has been suggested that they were originally utilized for protection from reactive oxygen species (ROS). This would be most important for cells that intensely generate ROS for antibacterial or messenger functions. We hypothesize that such cells were the evolutionary precursors of photocytes. Under this supposition, the origin of some flash-triggering mechanisms in bioluminescent eukaryotes can be traced back to the system of antioxidant sequestering and release, designed to provide large amounts of antioxidant instantaneously during the "respiratory burst" and prevent its spontaneous oxidation by molecular oxygen in between those bursts. [Talk: zakhartc.vassil.27631]

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