Scientists from the Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IBCh RAS) and their colleagues have identified, cloned and characterized the luciferase of the fungus gnat Keroplatus testaceus for the first time. The study strongly suggests that the newly identified enzyme evolved from the storage protein hexamerin, revealing a previously unknown evolutionary pathway for the emergence of bioluminescence in insects. These findings reveal the molecular basis of light emission in dipteran insects and pave the way for the development of new biomedical imaging tools.

Researchers from IBCh RAS, as part of an international collaboration, have elucidated the mechanism by which the natural polyamine spermine blocks the human calcium channel TRPV6. The study was supported by the Russian Ministry of Science and Higher Education (computational modeling) and published in Nature Communications.

Researchers from the Department of Biomolecular Chemistry at the Shemyakin- Ovchinnikov Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry together with international collaborators published two papers in The FEBS Journal confirming the role of the CPH enzyme in the fungal bioluminescence pathway: it breaks down oxyluciferin into caffeic and pyruvic acids, helping sustain light emission by recycling caffeic acid back into the bioluminescent system, while pyruvic acid may be redirected into central metabolism to help generate cellular energy. The findings open up opportunities for developing more efficient autonomous bioluminescent systems for medicine, biotechnology, agriculture, and environmental monitoring.