Luciferin
Class of light-emitting chemical compounds / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Luciferin (from Latin lucifer 'light-bearer') is a generic term for the light-emitting compound found in organisms that generate bioluminescence. Luciferins typically undergo an enzyme-catalyzed reaction with molecular oxygen. The resulting transformation, which usually involves breaking off a molecular fragment, produces an excited state intermediate that emits light upon decaying to its ground state. The term may refer to molecules that are substrates for both luciferases and photoproteins.[1]
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