UWS Concert Ends With Fireflies: Their Benefits Are Profound

By Julia Zichello

This week, the Naumburg Orchestral Concert in Central Park began with a few words about how Mozart and Mendelssohn were both about 13 years old when they wrote the pieces in the program for the evening.

How precocious!

Upper West Side Councilmember Gale Brewer also said a few words. Then, the music started. Mozart’s Divertimento in D major, K 136, (1772). It began with a burst and remained quick, upbeat, and playful for most of the piece. Brimming with optimism and lightheartedness.

Then, the rain came. First, a few droplets plinked on my recycled bag, then a few more. Umbrellas popped open. Some people fled. But when lightning flashed above the trees followed closely by thunder, it was time for everyone to go. The concert began at 7:33 p.m. and was rained out before 8 p.m. As we walked toward the west side to exit the park, a soft cool darkness fell; lights pulsed in the far distance, and then we started to see them. One by one they flashed. Not fast, but also not slow. A dream-like pace.

Suddenly, we were surrounded by the tiny glowing insects.

Fireflies, or lightning bugs — are beetles. Coleoptera, the order to which beetles belong, are the most diverse group of insects in the world. There are about 130 different species of fireflies in North America, and here in New York City the most common species is Photinus pyralis. When they aren’t lighting up the twilight, they look pretty modest. A mix of soft black with some light brown lines, like a wood-paneled station wagon from the 1980s. They display their glowing yellow abdomen to attract mates, but they attract some humans instead.

This year, firefly numbers are reportedly up, due to the unusually rainy spring which provided ideal conditions for the larva. Although, even with the slight increase this year, overall firefly numbers have been declining over the past decades, due to loss of suitable habitat, light pollution, and the use of pesticides. They lay their eggs and thrive in messier, leafier gardens where the grass is tall and goldenrod blooms.

But firefly light is beyond just a magical sight for summer evenings, it also has a biochemical side which is seriously brilliant all the year through.

The enzyme which causes the firefly to emit light is called “luciferase.” It works by adding oxygen to another substance called luciferin, which releases energy in the form of light. Luciferase was first discovered in the 1880s by Raphaël Dubois, but it wasn’t until the 1980s when Marlene DeLuca cloned the gene in the lab, that it was widely introduced into applications in molecular biology.

Luciferase is primarily used as a reporter, a way of monitoring activity of a microscopic substance by linking it with light. It can be linked to a gene of interest so that you can monitor when and how much the gene turns on or off. It has also been used in drug discovery, monitoring how a novel substance might impact genes, cells, and the surrounding molecules. And it can also be used to better understand how a tumor grows, and what might inhibit its growth.

The applications of luciferase are vast: cancer research, cell transplantation, infectious disease research, and studying neurological conditions such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. It’s almost impossible to measure the impact that this technology has had on the advancement of medical research.

This is what a little yellow light and basic scientific research can do.

The next Naumburg Orchestral Concert in Central Park will be on July 22. Go for the music, wait for the fireflies.

Julia Zichello, Ph.D. is an evolutionary biologist living on the Upper West Side.

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