Beach goers marvel at the sight of the bioluminescent waves In addition to being a rapid process, it is also just a single reaction.
In all characterized cases, the enzyme the of the luciferin.
They light up to attract mates.
But what makes this phenomenon, which rarely happens and is turning out to be one of the largest plankton blooms in a decade, so special? In these animals, photoreceptors control the illumination to match the brightness of the background.
Mechanism For most single-celled organisms, a mechanical deformation of the cell's surface creates a potential over the vacuole membrane, allowing protons from the acidic interior of the vacuole to contact the light emission chemistry in the cell and bioluminesce.
This reaction involves a light-emitting pigment, the , and a , the enzyme component.