J. Woodland Hastings (Harvard): The Origin of Luciferases and Bioluminescence

www.ibiology.org/microbiology/autoinduction-discov…

Hastings hypothesizes that luciferases, and thus bioluminescence, evolved as a mechanism to protect bacteria from oxidative damage as the Earth’s atmosphere became oxygenated 2.5 billion years ago.

Speaker Biography:
J. Woodland “Woody” Hastings was the Paul C. Mangelsdorf Professor of Natural Sciences Emeritus in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology at Harvard University and a long time affiliate of the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. Hastings had life-long fascination with bioluminescence. Together with scientist Kenneth Nealson, Hastings discovered that bioluminescent bacteria could communicate and act as a group; a process Hastings called autoinduction. Studies of luminescence in fireflies and dinoflagellates, in turn led to work on the circadian cycle. Hastings was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences.
Sadly, Hasting died in August 2014, shortly after this recording. He was 87 years old.