Gaussia Luciferase as a Reporter for Quorum Sensing in Staphylococcus aureus.
Isobel BlowerCarmen TongXiaohui SunEwan MurrayJeni LuckettWeng C ChanPaul WilliamsPhilip J HillPublished in: Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) (2020)
Gaussia luciferase (GLuc) is a secreted protein with significant potential for use as a reporter of gene expression in bacterial pathogenicity studies. To date there are relatively few examples of its use in bacteriology. In this study we show that GLuc can be functionally expressed in the human pathogen Staphylococcus aureus and furthermore show that it can be used as a biosensor for the agr quorum sensing (QS) system which employs autoinducing peptides to control virulence. GLuc was linked to the P3 promoter of the S. aureusagr operon. Biosensor strains were validated by evaluation of chemical agent-mediated activation and inhibition of agr. Use of GLuc enabled quantitative assessment of agr activity. This demonstrates the utility of Gaussia luciferase for in vitro monitoring of agr activation and inhibition.
Keyphrases
- staphylococcus aureus
- gene expression
- biofilm formation
- dna methylation
- escherichia coli
- gold nanoparticles
- sensitive detection
- crispr cas
- endothelial cells
- pseudomonas aeruginosa
- candida albicans
- methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureus
- quantum dots
- label free
- transcription factor
- amino acid
- human health
- risk assessment
- pluripotent stem cells
- climate change