A Ratiometric Dual Color Luciferase Reporter for Fast Characterization of Transcriptional Regulatory Elements in Plants

Plant synthetic biology requires precise characterization of genetic elements to construct complex genetic circuits that can improve plant traits or confer them with new characteristics. Transcriptional reporter assays are essential to quantify the effect of gene expression regulator elements. Additionally, transcriptional reporter systems are a key tool in understanding control of gene expression in biology. In this work, we construct and characterize a dual color luciferase ratiometric reporter system that possesses several advantages over currently used reporters. It is ratiometric, thus reducing variability and increasing consistency between experiments; it is fast, as both reporters can be measured at the same time in a single reaction, and it is less expensive to perform than current dual luciferase reporter assays. We have validated our system quantifying the transcriptional capability of a panel of promoters and terminators commonly used in synthetic biology with a broad range of expression magnitudes, and in a biologically relevant system, nitrate response.

Automated summary

Transcriptional reporter assays are crucial in plant synthetic biology for constructing complex genetic circuits and understanding gene expression control. The dual color luciferase ratiometric reporter system developed in this study offers advantages including speed, cost-effectiveness, and reduced variability.