AUTOMATED MULTI-CHANNEL LUMINOMETER FOR BIOLUMINESCENCE,DESIG AND ITS APPLICATION FOR CIRCADIAN RHYTHMICITY

使用16通道外壳、光电倍增管、袖珍计算机和Macintosh计算机制作了自动化多通道发光计，并开发了用于控制机器和分析所获得的数据的程序。该仪器可以跟踪两种不同生物体的昼夜节律。众所周知，生物发光甲藻 Gonyaulax polyedra 在多种独特的生物事件中表现出昼夜节律，包括生物发光、细胞分裂和光合作用。在恒定光照条件下，它表现出节律性，周期约为23小时，但我们的发光计无法检测到肌酸的周期缩短效应。由于影响节律性的因素有很多，我们无法重现所检测的各种条件（光强度、监测时间、温度等）下报告的效果。基因操纵的蓝细菌（引入细菌荧光素酶）显示出生物发光。光强度低于甲藻，但准确地表现出昼夜节律，具有温度补偿等几个重要特征。

Automated mutli-channel luminometer was made by using 16 channel housing, photomultiplier, pocket computer, and Macintosh computer and developted the programs for controlling the machine and analyzing the obtained data. This instrument allowed to follow circadian rhythmicity of two different organisms. Bioluminescent dinoflagellate Gonyaulax polyedra is well know to show circadian rhythmicities in several dinstinct biological events including bioluminescence, cell devision and photosynthetic activity. Under constant light conditions, it showed rhythmicity with a period of about 23 h, however, we could not detect the period-shortening effect of creatine by our luminometor. Since there are many factors influence on the rhythmicity, we could not reproduce the reported effects under various conditions (light intensity, monitoring time, temperature etc.) examined. Gene manipulated cyanobacteria (introducing bacteria luciferase) showed bioluminescence. The light intensity is lower than dinoflagellate but exactly showed circadian rhythmicity with several important characters such as temperature compensation.