Photobacterium phosphoreum
Species of bacterium
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Photobacterium phosphoreum is a Gram-negative, bioluminescent bacterium living in symbiosis with deep-sea marine organisms, such as anglerfish.[1] It can emit bluish-green light (490 nm) due to a chemical reaction between FMN, luciferin and molecular oxygen catalysed by an enzyme called luciferase.
| Photobacterium phosphoreum | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Domain: | Bacteria |
| Kingdom: | Pseudomonadati |
| Phylum: | Pseudomonadota |
| Class: | Gammaproteobacteria |
| Order: | Vibrionales |
| Family: | Vibrionaceae |
| Genus: | Photobacterium |
| Species: | P. phosphoreum |
| Binomial name | |
| Photobacterium phosphoreum (Cohn 1878) Beijerinck 1889 (Approved Lists 1980) | |
| Synonyms | |
| |
Ecology
P. phosphoreum appears to be distributed worldwide in oceans and is found in a variety of different marine habitats.[1] It was first isolated in 1878 from seawater, but has also been reported from the surfaces of fish and other marine animals, the intestines of fish, coastal seawater, and from a state of bioluminescent symbiosis with fish. P. phosphoreum colonizes a wide variety of deep-sea fishes which generally occur in the mesopelagic and bentho-pelagic zones.[1]
As a bioindicator
P. phosphoreum is the most frequently used luminescent bacterium in water quality assessment.[2]
