Screening and Selection of Bioluminescent strains from Marine fishes

Abstract

Bioluminescence is truly an amazing natural phenomenon. It plays a very large role in nature and if we humans can uncover its secrets, bioluminescence could become an incredible resource with thousands of many more important applications. This studytargets at the screening and selection of Bioluminescent strain from squids and shrimps. Four kinds of samples – squids, Deep sea shrimps, prawns and shankara were processed for the isolation of Bioluminescent bacteria. These bacteria were biochemically characterized into different species for which various tests were performed. All these species exhibited blue-green colour luminescence. The luminescence faded from bright to dim light after 24-58 hrs. Again when the culture was inoculated freshly, bright luminescence was seen. Boss medium produced bright luminescence when compared to that of luminescence medium. Plasmid curing was performed using ethidium bromide in order to prove that the luminescence is due to gene products coded by chromosomal DNA and not plasmid DNA. The chromosomal DNA was isolated and run on Agarsoe Gel Electrophoresis which showed a large band near the well. This indicates that the chromosomal DNA as a whole was having a high molecular weight and hence migration was not efficient.