Fine Lit­er­a­ture: Shed­ding Light on Bac­te­ria

by Elio

En­hanced bi­o­lu­mi­nes­cence in an arcA mu­tant of V. fi­scheri. Cul­ture flasks of wild type strain ES114 and its arcA mu­tant il­lu­mi­nated (top panel) or in the dark (bot­tom panel). Source

Why some bac­te­ria are bi­o­lu­mi­nes­cent is a topic that just won't go away. In an ear­lier post, we men­tioned a propo­sal for a role of light in the re­pair of UV-in­duced DNA dam­age. In 2005, Eric Stabb wrote a re­view in Mi­crobe (an ASM mag­a­zine) that pleas­antly helps in for­mu­lat­ing the is­sues and clar­i­fy­ing the na­ture of this fas­ci­nat­ing phe­nom­e­non. We may not have the de­fin­i­tive an­swers, but Stabb helps us think about the ques­tions.