luciferin
/luːˈsɪfərɪn/
noun
- A chemical substance that produces light when it reacts with oxygen, helped by an enzyme called luciferase.
- When luciferin mixes with oxygen in a firefly's body, it creates a yellow-green glow.
- The amount of light depends on how much luciferin is available in the organism.
- Researchers extracted luciferin from a type of glowing mushroom for a biology experiment.