Bioluminophore of bioluminescence (BL) comes from the
decomposition
of peroxide, which is an intermediate produced in the complicated
chemical reactions of BL. The peroxide is a dioxetanone in most BL
cases and an endoperoxide in fungal BL. The decomposition mechanisms
of these two types of peroxides have been exclusively studied. However,
the peroxide is a linear organic peroxide in bacterial BL, whose decomposition
explanations are quite controversial, and seven mechanisms have been
proposed. To thoroughly understand the mechanism of bioluminophore
production in bacterial BL, this paper systematically discusses the
seven proposed mechanisms via the present computational results and
previous experimental and theoretical results. Our research results
indicate that the bioluminophore in bacterial BL is produced through
the charge-transfer initiated luminescence (CTIL) mechanism. The decomposition
mechanism of linear organic peroxide was compared with the decomposition
mechanisms of the other two types of peroxides, dioxetanone and endoperoxide.
This study is also helpful in understanding the bioluminophore production
in other BLs via the decomposition of an organic peroxide, such as
dinoflagellate BL