Physiology Commons^™

Fully Codon-Optimized Luciferase Uncovers Novel Temperature Characteristics Of The Neurospora Clock, Van D. Gooch, Arun Mehra, Luis F. Larrondo, Julie Fox, Melissa Touroutoutoudis, Jennifer J. Loros, Jay C. Dunlap

Dartmouth Scholarship

We report the complete reconstruction of the firefly luciferase gene, fully codon optimized for expression in Neurospora crassa. This reporter enhances light output by approximately 4 log orders over that with previously available versions, now producing light that is visible to the naked eye and sufficient for monitoring the activities of many poorly expressed genes. Time lapse photography of strains growing in race tubes, in which the frq or eas/ccg-2 promoter is used to drive luciferase, shows the highest levels of luciferase activity near the growth front and newly formed conidial bands. Further, we have established a sorbose medium colony …