Open AccessBacterial luciferase is naturally destabilized in Mycobacterium tuberculosis and can be used to monitor changes in gene expression
Author(s) -
Roberts Esteban A.,
Clark Amanda,
Friedman Richard L.
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
fems microbiology letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.899
H-Index - 151
eISSN - 1574-6968
pISSN - 0378-1097
DOI - 10.1016/j.femsle.2004.12.010
Subject(s) - luciferase , reporter gene , vibrio harveyi , gene expression , mycobacterium tuberculosis , biology , mycobacterium bovis , promoter , bioreporter , gene , regulation of gene expression , microbiology and biotechnology , tuberculosis , vibrio , bacteria , biochemistry , genetics , transfection , medicine , pathology
Reporter systems efficient at monitoring temporal gene expression in slow‐growing mycobacteria would significantly aid the characterization of gene expression in specific environments. Bacterial luciferase is a reporter that has not been widely used to study gene expression in mycobacteria. This report describes the determination of the degradation of bacterial luciferase in Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Ra and its utility as a reporter of temporal gene expression in this slow‐growing mycobacterium. The inducible/repressible alanine dehydrogenase promoter of M. tuberculosis H37Rv was used to track the decay kinetics of Vibrio harveyi luciferase in both mid‐log phase and stationary phase grown M. tuberculosis H37Ra, which proved to be highly similar during both phases of growth. The luciferase reporter was then used to detect changes in expression from the heat‐shock promoter, phsp60 , of M. bovis BCG during M. tuberculosis H37Ra growth in culture. Quantitative real‐time PCR analysis of groEL2 , the hsp60 homologue in M. tuberculosis , displayed a similar pattern of expression to phsp60 ‐driven luciferase. These results strongly suggest that the luciferase reporter can be used to monitor temporal changes in gene expression in M. tuberculosis and may serve as a novel system to examine gene expression under specific conditions.