TY - JOUR TI - Firefly genomes illuminate parallel origins of bioluminescence in beetles AU - Fallon, Timothy R AU - Lower, Sarah E AU - Chang, Ching-Ho AU - Bessho-Uehara, Manabu AU - Martin, Gavin J AU - Bewick, Adam J AU - Behringer, Megan AU - Debat, Humberto J AU - Wong, Isaac AU - Day, John C AU - Suvorov, Anton AU - Silva, Christian J AU - Stanger-Hall, Kathrin F AU - Hall, David W AU - Schmitz, Robert J AU - Nelson, David R AU - Lewis, Sara M AU - Shigenobu, Shuji AU - Bybee, Seth M AU - Larracuente, Amanda M AU - Oba, Yuichi AU - Weng, Jing-Ke A2 - Waterhouse, Robert A2 - Tautz, Diethard VL - 7 PY - 2018 DA - 2018/10/16 SP - e36495 C1 - eLife 2018;7:e36495 DO - 10.7554/eLife.36495 UR - https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.36495 AB - Fireflies and their luminous courtships have inspired centuries of scientific study. Today firefly luciferase is widely used in biotechnology, but the evolutionary origin of bioluminescence within beetles remains unclear. To shed light on this long-standing question, we sequenced the genomes of two firefly species that diverged over 100 million-years-ago: the North American Photinus pyralis and Japanese Aquatica lateralis. To compare bioluminescent origins, we also sequenced the genome of a related click beetle, the Caribbean Ignelater luminosus, with bioluminescent biochemistry near-identical to fireflies, but anatomically unique light organs, suggesting the intriguing hypothesis of parallel gains of bioluminescence. Our analyses support independent gains of bioluminescence in fireflies and click beetles, and provide new insights into the genes, chemical defenses, and symbionts that evolved alongside their luminous lifestyle. KW - bioluminescence KW - firefly KW - luciferase KW - Photinus pyralis KW - Ignelater luminosus KW - Aquatica lateralis JF - eLife SN - 2050-084X PB - eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd ER -