Bioprospecting for novel Coleopteran luciferase

DNA was non-destructively extracted from five unidentified dry-preserved Lampyridae from the National Museum Cardiff. The DNA was prepared for Illumina sequencing using the NEXTFLEX Rapid DNA-Seq Kit for Illumina Platforms (PerkinElmer, MA, USA) , with the omission of sample sonication due to the degraded nature of the museum DNA extracts. The constructed libraries were enriched for luciferase gene sequences utilizing a cross-species affinity enrichment method which used biotin probes constructed from the Photinus pyralis luciferase gene cDNA. The enriched libraries were subsequently sequenced as 150 bp paired-end reads on the Illumina NextSeq 500 Sequencer (Illumina, Inc., CA, USA) in the Cardiff University BIOSI Genomics Research Hub.