In the firefly light organ, luciferin-regenerating enzyme (LRE) plays an important role in the recycling of oxylucifeiin into luciferm In this study, the LRE cDNA was cloned from total RNA extracted from lantern of Lampyris turkestarucus (an Iranian firefly) using PCR-based techniques including reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction, 5'-RACE (5'-rapid amplification of cDNA ends) and 3'-RACE The full-length cDNA encoding LRE of L turkestanicus (T-LRE) was 1047 with 924 bp open-reading frame encoding the protein of 307 amino acid residues with a calculated molecular mass of 33 5 kDa The deduced ammo acid sequence of T-LRE showed 46 and 45% identity to A-LRE (LRE from the American firefly - Photinus pyralis) and C-LRE (LRE from a Japanese firefly - Luciola cructata), respectively The cDNA encoding LRE of L rurkestmucus was expressed in lecombmant Eschenclua coh and iris shown that T-LRE improves the luminescent signal of firefly luciferase (C) Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.