A team of scientists from Switzerland and Taiwan has managed to unravel the keys to how the bioluminescence of fireflies works based on fast pulses of light that they use as communication. The work has been published in the journal Physical Review Letters .
Fireflies, those insects that emit light when a compound called "luciferin" breaks down , use a system that could have multiple potential applications. Now, thanks to this study, the complete process of this very particular lighting has been described.
The chemical reaction that causes this illumination requires oxygen and, until now, it was unknown how they supplied it to cells. To find out, the experts used a sophisticated imaging technique -microtomography- to reproduce the “flashlight” (the organ that produces light) located in the abdomen of the firefly and they managed to trace how oxygen was supplied to the cells emitting light. light .
By applying this technique to live fireflies, they were able to see, for the first time in history, the entire structure of the "lantern" and make quantitative assessments of the oxygen distribution. Thus, the firefly diverts available oxygen from other cellular functions and diverts it to the reaction that breaks down luciferin, producing bioluminescence.
" The techniques we use have an advantage over, for example, conventional X-ray techniques, which cannot easily distinguish between soft tissues," explains Giorgio Margaritondo, co-author of the study.
