Fungi get the green light: Chemical basis for bioluminescence in glowing fungi uncovered
Friday, June 19, 2015 - 09:00
in Biology & Nature
Foxfire, the greenish light given off by special fungi in the dark of the forest, was once regarded as magic. Today we know that it comes from bioluminescence, like the glow of a firefly. A team of Russian and Japanese scientists has now unravelled the previously unknown chemistry responsible for the glowing fungi. As they report in the journal Angewandte Chemie, the luminescence of many, if not all, fungi is based on the antioxidant hispidin. A hydroxylase enzyme converts the hispidin to a substance that glows when it is further oxidized by another enzyme.