Bioluminesence in bacteria is caused by bacterial luciferase enzymes which are structurally heterodimeric. Commercial developments and researchers across globe have used bioluminescence as a reporter system. An elaborate study on enzymes and intermediates formed in bioluminescence has still been an area to be elucidated.
Deeva A.A. et al.(2016) in this recent article have carried out a study on 21 bacterial luciferase enzyme. They have analyzed both alpha and beta subunits. The study involved carrying out a detailed analysis on differences between active sites.
The three dimensional models of two of the bacterial luciferase enzyme are available at PMDB database: PM0080525 and PM0080526.
Reference:
Deeva Anna. A. et al. (2016) Structural distinctions of fast and slow bacterial luciferases revealed by phylogenetic analysis. Bioinformatics 32(20) 3053-3057.