Abstract
An electrochemical on-off regulation of in vitro bacterial luciferase reaction has been reviewed in light of the application to studies on bacterial bioluminescence. The redox process of FMN/FMNH2 at an electrode is successfully utilized to initiate the bacterial luciferase reaction and to halt it. The electrochemical on-off regulation is versatile to develop not only luciferase turnover but also its single turnover. From the characterization of luciferase reaction based on this method, the thermodynamic behavior for the formation of emitting species has been explained. This method is also beneficial to the characterization of endogenous fluorescent proteins from the point of view of their molecular function in bioluminescence production.
