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Team:Cambridge/Bioluminescence/Bacterial Luciferases
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'''Project Vibrio''' was designed to complement Project Firefly, by using bacterial lux operons to do what was impossible with firefly luciferases | '''Project Vibrio''' was designed to complement Project Firefly, by using bacterial lux operons to do what was impossible with firefly luciferases | ||
Revision as of 16:14, 23 October 2010
Project Vibrio: Introduction
One of the plates of V. phosphoreum we prepared.
Project Vibrio was designed to complement Project Firefly, by using bacterial lux operons to do what was impossible with firefly luciferases
- Substrate production in E. coli, avoiding the need to add luciferin
- Emission of blue light
Pathway
Bacterial lux operons emit light using five enzymes:
- luxA and luxB form the luciferase part of the system, they emit light using the substrate tetradecanal
- luxC, luxD and luxE are involved in the biosynthesis of tetradecanal from readily available substrates
Bioluminescent species
The Cambridge team is looking into these bacterial luciferases:
- Vibrio fischeri forms symbioses with squid to prevent the squid from casting a shadow on moonlit nights. Due to this their lux proteins are non-functional above 30 degrees
- Vibrio (formerly Photobacterium) phosphoreum emits a very blue light, perhaps partly through its use of lumazine
