The Effects of Caffeic Acid, Hispidin and a Discovered Activating Component on Luminescence of Mycelium and a Luminescent System of the Basidiomycete Neonothopanus nambi

Abstract

It was found in vivo that the addition of caffeic acid and a low-molecular-weight bioluminescence activator that we have discovered to the mycelium of the luminous fungus Neonothopanus nambi led to a rapid and significant (by an order of magnitude and more) increase in the intensity of its light emission. It is proposed that the observed effect of activation of the fungus glow may be mediated by the oxidation of added substances by enzymes of the ligninolytic complex of basidiomycetes (in particular, peroxidases) with the emission of visible light quanta. Parallel in vivo experiments have shown that the addition of hispidin (a precursor of luciferin in luminous higher fungi) did not affect the intensity of light emission of the mycelium. In vitro studies have shown that caffeic acid and the discovered low-molecular-weight glow activator did not affect the light emission level of the enzyme luminescent system isolated from the mycelium of N. nambi in the presence of NADPH and significantly suppressed the luminescent reaction of the system induced by NADPH and hispidin. The totality of the data we obtained indicated the presence in luminous higher fungi of different biochemical pathways for the generation of visible light quanta involving different enzymes (or enzyme systems) and different substrates.