PLANT MOLECULAR BIOLOGY REPORTER Volume 5, Number 1, 1987 Pages 225-236 REVIEWS AND PERSPECTIVES Working With Bacterial Bioluminescence Joe J. Shaw, Peter Rogowsky, Timothy J. Close and Clarence I. Kado Department of Plant Pathology, University of California. Davis, CA 95616 Introduction Bioluminescence exists in a wide variety of life forms including worms, mol- lusks, insects, fish, diatoms, jellyfish, fungi and bacteria, and comprehensive reviews have been published addressing the ecology and biochemistry of bio- luminescence (Hastings 1968; DeLuca et al., 1978; Hastings et al., 1985). In general, all bioluminescence results from the action of a luciferase enzyme upon its substrate, the luciferin. In bacteria the luciferin is an aldehyde which is synthesized from a fatty acid precursor by the action of a fatty acid reduc- tase (Wall et al., 1984; Boylan et al., 1985; Byers and Meighen, 1985). The first published cloning of any type of luciferase genes was by Belas et al. (1982), who cloned the luciferase (lux) genes of Vibrio harweyi. Almost simul- taneously another group reported similar success (Cohn et al., 1983). Func- tional fatty acid reductase genes were not present on these clones, and there- fore, luciferin for the bioluminescence reaction has to be added exogenously. V harveyi luciferase genes have been used successfully to generate light in Rhizobium meliloti even inside functional root nodules (Legocki, 1987), in blue green algae (Schmetterer, 1986) and, after providing eukaryotic transcription signals, in plant protoplasts (Koncz et al., 1987). Engebrecht et al. (1983) reported the cloning of the V. fischeri luciferase genes as well as functional fatty acid reductase genes in a single 16 kb frag- ment. Further analysis demonstrated that five genes organized in a operon Inquiries to: Clarence 1. Kado, Department of Plant Pathology, University of California, Davis, CA 95616. 225