Luminophores in the fur of seven Australian Wet Tropics mammals
Reinhold, Linda M., Rymer, Tasmin L., and Wilson, David T. (2025) Luminophores in the fur of seven Australian Wet Tropics mammals. PLoS ONE, 20 (4). e0320432.
|
PDF (Published Version)
- Published Version
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution. Download (1MB) | Preview |
Abstract
Bright photoluminescence in the fur of mammals has recently raised considerable scientific interest. The fur of many mammal species, including Australian northern long-nosed (Perameles pallescens) and northern brown (Isoodon macrourus) bandicoots, photoluminesces strongly, displaying pink, yellow, blue and/or white colours. We used reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography and electrospray ionisation mass spectrometry to investigate the luminophores contributing to this photoluminescence. At least two classes of luminophore were observed in bandicoot fur extracts, and four of the orange-pink photoluminescent molecules had molecular masses consistent with protoporphyrin, coproporphyrin, uroporphyrin and heptacarboxylporphyrin isomers. Fur extracts of three other species of marsupial, a placental and a monotreme also contained a luminophore consistent with the molecular mass of protoporphyrin, whether or not pink photoluminescence was evident in the pelage as a whole. This study is the first chemical analysis of luminophores contributing to photoluminescence in the fur of Australasian mammals since two tryptophan metabolites were identified more than 50 years ago.
| Item ID: | 86389 |
|---|---|
| Item Type: | Article (Research - C1) |
| ISSN: | 1932-6203 |
| Keywords: | Photoluminescence, Luminophore, HPLC, Mass spectrometry, Mammal, Marsupial, Biochemistry |
| Copyright Information: | © 2025 Reinhold et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. |
| Funders: | James Cook University (JCU) |
| Date Deposited: | 28 Jul 2025 23:42 |
| FoR Codes: | 31 BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES > 3101 Biochemistry and cell biology > 310101 Analytical biochemistry @ 100% |
| SEO Codes: | 28 EXPANDING KNOWLEDGE > 2801 Expanding knowledge > 280102 Expanding knowledge in the biological sciences @ 100% |
| Downloads: |
Total: 1 Last 12 Months: 1 |
| More Statistics |
Actions (Repository Staff Only)
 |
Item Control Page |