Luciferase is a general term for the class of oxidative enzymes used in bioluminescence and is distinct from a photoprotein. Luciferase catalyzes a bioluminescent reaction which involves the substrate luciferin as well as Mg2+ and ATP, produces green light with a wavelength of 562 nm. Luciferase from firefly is broadly used as a reporter for studying gene regulation and function, and for pharmaceutical screening.
Luciferase produced in E.Coli is a single, non-glycosylated polypeptide chain containing 571 amino acids (1-550 a.a.) and having a molecular mass of 62.9kDa.
Luciferase is fused to a 21 amino acid His-tag at N-terminus & purified by proprietary chromatographic techniques.