Creation of Molecular Tools for the Investigation of lux Promoter Regulation by a Potential Small RNA Product

Abstract

The lux operon within the bacteria Photorhabdus spp. contains genes sufficient for bioluminescence. The promoter region of this operon, when expressed in the reverse direction, seems to enhance levels of bioluminescence in some systems (Frackman et al., 1990). We hypothesized that the transcription and subsequent translation of the lux promoter in the reverse direction would create a bacterial small RNA (sRNA) product that regulates the activity of the lux promoter in the forward direction. In order to test this hypothesis, we aimed to create the plasmid system shown below.