| abstract |
A novel photoprotein is provided. The present invention relates to a novel photoprotein (luciferase) derived from marine plankton and a gene group thereof, an ancestor photoprotein having photoprotein activity estimated from them, and a gene encoding the ancestor photoprotein. The full-length amino acid sequence and nucleotide sequence of the ancestral luciferase protein deduced from the amino acid sequence of zooplankton in which marine plankton belongs to the order Calanoida, Augaptiloidea, Metridinidae, Lucicutiidae, Heterorhabdidae are also described. [Selection] Figure 1 |