Part:BBa_K216008:Experience

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Applications of BBa_K216008

Comparison to other luminescent reporter systems: the quantum yield of bacterial luciferase is much lower than that of firefly or Renilla luciferase, meaning that the luminescence is much fainter. However, the substrate, n-decanal, is extremely cheap compared to the D-luciferin and coelenterazine required by these other enzymes, and if luxCDE are provided, the organism can produce its own substrate (We are in the process of preparing a luxCDE BioBrick to accompany this one; the activity of the artificial luxCDE operon has been confirmed in a non-BioBrick format). Thus bacterial luciferase is a good choice for environmental applications, where supplying luciferin or coelenterazine would not be feasible.

User Reviews

Initial experience: Edinburgh iGEM 2009

To confirm that this BioBrick works, we added it to the PyeaR promoter (BBa_K216005), which is inducible by nitrate and nitrite, and plated it on a plate with about 20 mg of solid sodium nitrate added at one edge. The following morning, colonies were present all over the plate apart from within 1 cm or so of the region where the sodium nitrate had been added (apparently it had inhibited growth in this region). N-decanal (5 microlitres) was added to the plate, which was then sealed with parafilm and returned to the incubator for 30 minutes to allow aldehyde to diffuse into the cells. The plate was then examined in a dark room. Glowing colonies were clearly visible, indicating that active LuxAB was being produced. For information on further tests, see the Experience page for BBa_K216016.

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