Preface

As someone who has spent more than 33 years studying the bioluminescence phenomenon in the world's oceans, I am continuously amazed by the many bioluminescence adaptations marine and terrestrial animals have developed to ensure their existence. It can hardly be considered a random occurrence as it has developed among various types of organisms, such as single celled dinoflagellates to the much more complex forms such as shrimp, fish, squid beetles, and worms. Bioluminescence has many functions, from predator-prey interactions and courtship, to camouflage and alert status from potential predators.

We now find ourselves utilizing luciferase – luciferin proteins, ATP, genes and the whole complexities of these interactions to observe and follow the progress or inhibition of tumors in animal models by measuring bioluminescence intensity, spatially and temporally using highly sophisticated camera systems. The following chapters describe applications in preclinical oncology research by bioluminescence imaging (BLI) with a variety of applications. Two other chapters describe current methodologies for rapid detection of contaminants using the Milliflex system, and the use of bioluminescence resonance energy transfer (BRET) technology for monitoring physical interactions between proteins in living cells. Others are using bioluminescent proteins for high sensitive optical reporters imaging in living animals, developing pHtolerant luciferase for brighter *in vivo* imaging, and oscillation characteristics in bacterial bioluminescence. Lastly, using recent data, two chapters describe the longterm seasonal characteristics of oceanic bioluminescence and the responsible planktonic species producing bioluminescence. Such studies are few and rare.

I hope that after you read these chapters, many more questions will come to mind, which will encourage further studies into this fascinating area.

> **Dr David Lapota**  Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center, Pacific San Diego, California U.S.A.

**Part 1** 

**Oceanic Measurements of Bioluminescence** 
