Optical steady-state and time-resolved spectroscopic methods were used to study the photoprotolytic reaction of oxyluciferin, the active bioluminescence chromophore of the firefly's luciferase-catalyzed reaction. We found that like D-luciferin, the substrate of the firefly bioluminescence reaction, oxyluciferin is a photoacid with pK(a)* value of similar to 0.5, whereas the excited-state proton transfer (ESPT) rate coefficient is 2.2 x 10(10) s(-1), which is somewhat slower than that of D-luciferin. The kinetic isotope effect (KIE) on the fluorescence decay of oxyluciferin is 2.5 +/- 0.1, the same value as that of D-luciferin. Both chromophores undergo fluorescence quenching in solutions with a pH value below 3.