Reporter markers Luciferase

Bioluminescence serves as an excellent reporter system as a sensitive marker for microbial detection, as a real-time, non-invasive reporter for measuring gene expression and as a measure of intracellular biochemical function (cell viability). Most widely studied of the bioluminescence systems are those belonging to the luminous bacteria Vibrio sp.. Photobacterium sp. and Photorhabdus luminescens) and the firefly Photinus pyralis). While these systems have proved extremely versatile, there are caveats to their use limiting the array of applications they can be applied to. These caveats mainly surround the nature of the luciferase enzymes, and include temperature and pH stability. 

This chapter covers j8-galactosidase (jSGal or LacZ) and luciferase (Lux/Luc) gene systems as typical reporter systems. Note that alkaline phosphatase (PhoA) can also be used as an excellent reporter system and has been described in Chapter 5. As selection markers, the ampicillin resistance system (Bla or ApO will be described. The chloramphenicol acetyltransferase (CAT) gene system will also be discussed as a typical marker/reporter with dual functions. 

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