The use of the luxA gene of the bacterial luciferase operon as a reporter gene

✍ Scribed by Olsson, Olof ;Koncz, Csaba ;Szalay, Aladar A.

• Publisher: Springer
• Year: 1988
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 968 KB
• Volume: 215
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0026-8925
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00331295

✦ Synopsis

Bacterial luciferase can be assayed rapidly and with high sensitivity both in vivo and in vitro. Here we demonstrate that the N-terminal hydrophobic domain of the alpha catalytic subunit of the luciferase enzyme is indispensable for enzyme activity, although N-terminal translational fusions with full luciferase activity can be obtained. Bacterial luciferase is therefore ideally suited as a reporter enzyme for gene fusion experiments. A list of vectors for the convenient use of the luciferase marker genes to monitor gene expression in vivo are presented.