Novel monomeric luciferase enzymes as tools to study plant gene regulation in vivo

Taking advantage of a specially constructed vector, luciferase LuxA and LuxB subunits were connected in frame to different amino acid linkers to reproduce a series of monomeric luciferase enzymes. A comparison of their activities in E. coli cells demonstrated that the length of the linkers positively affected activity. One luciferase fusion gene was expressed in plant cells, and we showed that this gene activity could be monitored directly without destructive sampling.