A glowing fish "lights up" itself by eating seaflies

TOKYO, Jan. 13 (Xinhua) -- A new Japanese study has found that a body-emitting monofin fish in the ocean does not have a luminescent gene of its own, but instead eats luminous plankton to get luminescent proteins. This is the first time researchers have discovered this phenomenon of "stealing protein".
In a paper published in the new issue of science advances, researchers at the University of Central Japan and others say they analyzed the glowing sea fish, a single finfish, and found that the light it emits comes from a protein called luciferase, which itself does not have a gene for synthesizes.
analysis showed that the luciferase in the proposed singlefin fish is the same as the luciferase in the luminescent plankton sea fluorine, which is the food of the proposed single fin fish. Animals usually digest proteins when they eat them, but this study shows that instead of digesting luciferase after eating sea fluorine, the intended singlefin fish absorbs luciferase directly into the cells of a particular organ, thereby "lighting up" itself.
the first time the special phenomenon has been detected, and they named it Kleeptoprotein, meaning "stealing proteins." The researchers will further study the evolutionary process of the "stealing protein" behavior of the proposed singlefin fish, the genetic mechanisms involved, and whether this phenomenon is prevalent in the biological community. They believe that exploring mechanisms and mimicking their use could yield results that could be useful in areas such as medicine.