Through their diet, animals can obtain substances essential for imparting special characteristics, such as toxins in monarch butterflies and luminescent substances in jellyfishes. These substances are typically small molecules because they are less likely to be digested and may be hard for the consumer to biosynthesize. Here, we report that Parapriacanthus ransonneti, a bioluminescent fish, obtains not only its luciferin but also its luciferase enzyme from bioluminescent ostracod prey. The enzyme purified from the fish's light organs was identical to the luciferase of Cypridina noctiluca, a bioluminescent ostracod that they feed upon. Experiments where fish were fed with a related ostracod, Vargula hilgendorfii, demonstrated the specific uptake of the luciferase to the fish's light organs. This "kleptoprotein" system allows an organism to use novel functional proteins that are not encoded in its genome and provides an evolutionary alternative to DNA-based molecular evolution.

中文翻译：

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Kleptoprotein生物发光：Parapriacanthus鱼从ostracod猎物获得萤光素酶。

通过饮食，动物可以获取赋予特殊特征所必需的物质，例如帝王蝶中的毒素和水母中的发光物质。这些物质通常是小分子，因为它们不太可能被消化，并且可能难以被消费者生物合成。在这里，我们报告说，Parapriacanthus ransonneti是一种生物发光的鱼类，不仅从生物发光的捕食类捕食者获得其荧光素，而且获得其荧光素酶。从鱼的轻器官中提纯的酶与夜蛾丝虫的萤光素酶相同，夜蛾丝虫以它们为食。在鱼类中喂食了一种相关的被捕食的类目食虫（Vargula hilgendorfii）的实验表明，萤光素酶对鱼类的轻器官有特殊的吸收作用。这种“ kleptoprotein”