The analysis of Serratia liquefaciens MG1 'luxAB insertion mutants that are responsive to N-butanoyl-L-homoserine lactone revealed that expression of lipB is controlled by the swr quorum-sensing system. LipB is part of the Lip exporter, a type I secretion system, which is responsible for the secretion of extracellular lipase, metalloprotease, and S-layer protein.

A tributyltin (TBT) luxAB transcriptional fusion in Escherichia coli revealed that a TBT-activated promoter is located upstream of two cotranscribed orphan genes, ygaV and ygaP. We demonstrate that transcription from the promoter upstream of ygaVP is constitutive in a ygaVP mutant, suggesting that YgaV is an autoregulated, TBT-inducible repressor.

Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis is a slowly growing mycobacterial species, requiring 6 to 8 weeks of culture before colonies can be counted visually. Here, we describe the development of luminescent M. avium subsp. paratuberculosis expressing luxAB genes of Vibrio harveyi and its use for vaccine testing in an experimental mouse model, replacing fastidious CFU counting by rapid lumin...

The luminescence signal of luxAB-encoded bacterial luciferase strongly depends on the metabolic state of the host cell, which restricts the use of this reporter system to metabolically active bacteria. Here we show that in stationary-phase cells of Lactococcus lactis, detection of luciferase is significantly improved by the addition of riboflavin or flavin mononucleotide to whole-cell assay sys...

Bacterial endospores in the genus Bacillus are considered good models for studying interplanetary transfer of microbes by natural or human processes. Although spore survival during transfer itself has been the subject of considerable study, the fate of spores in extraterrestrial environments has received less attention. In this report we subjected spores of a strain of Bacillus subtilis, contai...

Salt-induced genes in the cyanobacterium Anabaena sp. strain PCC 7120 were identified by use of a Tn5-based transposon bearing luxAB as a reporter. The genomic sequence adjacent to one site of insertion of the transposon was identical in part to the sequence of the lti2 gene, which was previously identified in a differential screen for cold-induced transcripts in Anabaena variabilis. The lti2-l...

The rmpA2 gene, which encodes an activator for capsular polysaccharide (CPS) synthesis, was isolated from a 200-kb virulence plasmid of Klebsiella pneumoniae CG43. Based on the sequence homology with LuxR at the carboxyl-terminal DNA-binding motif, we hypothesized that RmpA2 exerts its effect by activating the expression of cps genes that are responsible for CPS biosynthesis. Two luxAB transcri...

Stenotrophomonas maltophilia W81 can protect sugar beet against PYTHIUM:-mediated damping-off disease through the production of an extracellular protease. Here, the proteolytic enzyme of W81 was purified by anion-exchange chromatography and characterized as a serine protease. The purified enzyme was fungicidal against PYTHIUM: ultimum in vitro. Its synthesis was inducible by casein in W81, and ...

An expression vector for the luxAB genes, derived from Vibrio harveyi, was introduced into Nitrosomonas europaea. Although the recombinant strain produced bioluminescence due to the expression of the luxAB genes under normal growing conditions, the intensity of the light emission decreased immediately, in a time-and dose-dependent manner, with the addition of ammonia monooxygenase inhibitors, s...