Talk:Luciferin

References

This article needs to have citations, especially for the "Types..." section. If anyone has time, please help, otherwise I'll get to it as soon as I can.--Bfesser 01:16, 2 November 2007 (UTC)

• The external link to has them listed. But i think we3 can find better sources.--ZayZayEM 02:45, 2 November 2007 (UTC)

Pigment

Is luciferin a pigment? I think it PRODUCES light by means of a chemical reaction (even in darkness). A pigment doesn't produce light but REFLECTS some wave lenghts of light and absorbs others. The wave leghts it reflects produce in our eyes the perception of color. Am I wrong?--Miguelferig (talk) 18:03, 7 January 2012 (UTC)

Good catch. Pigments absorb not emit light. Luciferins may also be pigments, but this is incidental to their main function to emit light when oxidized. Hence calling them pigments is misleading and confusing. I have therefore changed the wiki link from biological pigment to heterocyclic compound, since it appears that all luciferins are heterocycles. Boghog (talk) 12:52, 8 January 2012 (UTC)

Likewise it's in the category "Fluorescent dyes", which reinforces the common misconception that luminescence and fluorescence are the same phenomenon. Nanderson95 (talk) 02:50, 5 June 2019 (UTC)

It's true that these are all separate concepts that are easily confused. But it's also apparently true that luciferins have all three properties. I think that having them separately in a list helps distinguish them from each other (otherwise why would there be separate terms listed?). DMacks (talk) 03:00, 5 June 2019 (UTC)

Wiki Education assignment: BYU-Biophysics, CELL 568

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 4 September 2025 and 19 December 2025. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Peteriswright (article contribs). Peer reviewers: Ddavis20, 0mcrd.

— Assignment last updated by Rjstenson (talk) 16:05, 14 October 2025 (UTC)