Cypridina was first characterized by Dr Osamu and Akemi Shimomura from “Umi Hotaru” Japanese Sea Fireflies in 1966. These are bottom dwelling ostracods that emit a light stream into water when disturbed presumably to deter predation. Cypridina Luciferase was first cloned by Eric Thompson, and S. Nagata under Fred Tsuji in Japan 1989. Cypridina is a 555 amino acid, 62.171 KDa protein that oxidizes the luciferin to produce blue light at 462 nm Em Max. The advantage of using the Cypridna system: it does not cross react with Coelenterazine or Firefly d-Luciferin so it may be used in multiplex assays, brighter then Firefly LuciferasennThe advantages of lyophilized luciferins are:nnpre-aliquoted in small amounts, fresh substrate for every set of experimentsnlong shelf-life (packed under Argon)nfaster to dissolve due to its fine crystal structurenconsistent quality between aliquotes
