Construction of a bioluminescent mycobacterium and its use for assay of antimycobacterial agents

To show, as a model system, that mycobacteria can express heterologous luciferase genes and that bioluminescence can be a rapid method of measuring antimycobacterial activity, a bioluminescent form of Mycobacterium smegmatis was made by transformation with a Mycobacterium-Escherichia coli shuttle vector containing the luxAB genes from Vibrio harveyi. The antimycobacterial effects of antibiotics and biocides could be assayed in real time by using bioluminescent M. smegmatis.