Bioluminescence: Fundamentals and Applications in Biotechnology - Volume 3

The latest advances in molecular biology have made available several biotechnological tools that take advantage of the high detectability and quantum efficiency of bioluminescence (BL), with an ever-increasing number of novel applications in environmental, pharmaceutical, food, and forensic fields. Indeed, BL proteins are being used to develop ultrasensitive binding assays and cell-based assays, thanks to their high detectability and to the availability of highly sensitive BL instruments. The appealing aspect of molecular biology tools relying on BL reactions is their general applicability in both in vitro assays, such as cell cultures or purified proteins, and in vivo settings, such as in whole-animal BL imaging. The aim of this chapter is to provide the reader with an overview of state-of-the-art bioluminescent tools based on luciferase genes, highlighting molecular biology strategies that have been applied so far, together with some selected examples.

Bioluminescence is light production by living organisms, which can be observed in numerous marine creatures and some terrestrial invertebrates. More specifically, bacterial bioluminescence is the “cold light” produced and emitted by bacterial cells, including both wild-type luminescent and genetically engineered bacteria. Because of the lively interplay of synthetic biology, microbiology, toxicology, and biophysics, different configurations of whole-cell biosensors based on bacterial bioluminescence have been designed and are widely used in different fields, such as ecotoxicology, food toxicity, and environmental pollution. This chapter first discusses the background of the bioluminescence phenomenon in terms of optical spectrum. Platforms for bacterial bioluminescence detection using various techniques are then introduced, such as a photomultiplier tube, charge-coupled device (CCD) camera, micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS), and complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) based integrated circuit. Furthermore, some typical biochemical methods to optimize the analytical performances of bacterial bioluminescent biosensors/assays are reviewed, followed by a presentation of author’s recent work concerning the improved sensitivity of a bioluminescent assay for pesticides. Finally, bacterial bioluminescence as implemented in eukaryotic cells, bioluminescent imaging, and cancer cell therapies is discussed.

Bacterial luciferase is a flavin-dependent monooxygenase found in bioluminescent bacteria. The enzyme catalyzes a light-emitting reaction by using reduced flavin, long chain aldehyde, and oxygen as substrates and yields oxidized flavin, carboxylic acid, and water as products with concomitant emission of blue-green light around 485–490 nm. The enzyme is a heterodimer consisting of two homologous subunits, designated as the α- and β-subunits. The reactive reaction center is located in the α-subunit, whereas the β-subunit is required for maintaining the active conformation of the α-subunit. The enzyme reaction occurs through the generation of a reactive C4a-oxygenflavin adduct, presumably C4a-peroxyflavin, before the light-emitting species is generated from the decomposition of an adduct between the C4a-peroxyflavin and the aldehyde. Because the luciferase reaction generates light, the enzyme has the potential to be used as a bioreporter for a wide variety of applications. With the recent invention of the fusion enzyme that can be expressed in mammalian cells, future possibilities for the development of additional bioreporter applications are promising.

Bioluminescence imaging (BLI) of bacteria was primarily designed to permit real-time, sensitive, and noninvasive monitoring of the progression of infection in live animals. Generally, BLI relies on the construction of bacterial strains that possess the lux operon. The lux operon is composed of a set of genes that encode the luciferase enzyme and its cognate substrate, which interact to produce light—a phenomenon that is referred to as bioluminescence. Bioluminescence emitted by the bacteria can then be detected and imaged within a living host using sensitive charge-coupled device (CCD) cameras. In comparison to traditional host-pathogen studies, BLI offers the opportunity for extended monitoring of infected animals without resorting to euthanasia and extensive tissue processing at each time point. Therefore, BLI can reduce the number of animals required to generate meaningful data, while significantly contributing to the understanding of pathogenesis in the host and, subsequently, the development and evaluation of adequate vaccines and therapeutics. BLI is also useful in characterizing the interactions of pathogens with plants and the para-host environment. In this chapter, we demonstrate the broad application of BLI for studying bacterial pathogens in different niches. Furthermore, we will specifically focus on the use of BLI to characterize the following: (1) the pathogenesis of Brucella melitensis in mice (animal host), and (2) the progression of infection of Clavibacter michiganensis subsp. michiganensis in tomatoes (plant host). These studies will provide an overview of the wide potential of BLI and its role in enhancing the study of unique—and sometimes difficult-to-characterize—bacterial pathogens.