Gaussia luciferase as a reporter for quorum sensing in staphylococcus aureus

Blower, Isobel; Tong, Carmen; Sun, Xiaohui; Murray, Ewan; Luckett, Jeni; Chan, Weng; Williams, Paul; Hill, Philip

Abstract

© 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. Gaussia luciferase (GLuc) is a secreted protein with significant potential for use as a reporter of gene expression in bacterial pathogenicity studies. To date there are relatively few examples of its use in bacteriology. In this study we show that GLuc can be functionally expressed in the human pathogen Staphylococcus aureus and furthermore show that it can be used as a biosensor for the agr quorum sensing (QS) system which employs autoinducing peptides to control virulence. GLuc was linked to the P3 promoter of the S. aureus agr operon. Biosensor strains were validated by evaluation of chemical agent-mediated activation and inhibition of agr. Use of GLuc enabled quantitative assessment of agr activity. This demonstrates the utility of Gaussia luciferase for in vitro monitoring of agr activation and inhibition.

Citation

Blower, I., Tong, C., Sun, X., Murray, E., Luckett, J., Chan, W., Williams, P., & Hill, P. (2020). Gaussia luciferase as a reporter for quorum sensing in staphylococcus aureus. Sensors, 20(15), 1-12. https://doi.org/10.3390/s20154305

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jul 30, 2020
• Online Publication Date: Aug 1, 2020
• Publication Date: Aug 1, 2020
• Deposit Date: Aug 5, 2020
• Publicly Available Date: Aug 6, 2020
• Journal: Sensors (Switzerland)
• Electronic ISSN: 1424-8220
• Publisher: MDPI
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 20
• Issue: 15
• Article Number: 4305
• Pages: 1-12
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/s20154305
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/4813410
• Publisher URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/20/15/4305