COMPARISON OF GRAM-POSITIVE AND GRAM-NEGATIVE BACTERIAL STRAINS CLONED WITH DIFFERENT TYPES OF LUCIFERASE GENES IN BIOLUMINESCENCE CYTOTOXICITY TESTS (VOL 10, PG 41, 1995)

The bacterial bioluminescence assay is widely used to estimate chemica l cytotoxicity. This assay is performed most often by using luminescen t bacteria Vibrio fisheri NRRL-B-11177 (earlier cited as Photobacteriu m phosphoreum NRRL-B-11177) as a test organism. In this work we have u sed cloned gram(+) and gram(-) bacterial strains for the evaluation of chemical toxicity. Two types of luciferase genes were used as reporte r genes, one of which was ATP-dependent eukaryotic luciferase from Pyr ophorus plagiophthalamus and the other was FMN-dependent bacterial luc iferase from Vibrio harveyi. These cloned strains were used to evaluat e the effects of differences in cell wall structures in the biolumines cence cytotoxicity test using small molecular weight toxic chemicals a s model compounds. The strains were found to have remarkably similar b ehavior, and sensitivity toward test toxicants regardless of rather di fferent kinds of membrane structure. However, the eukaryotic luciferas e was found in every aspect more useful in toxicity tests than bacteri al luciferase mainly because of increased sensitivity and ease of oper ation. The general behavior of the light emission is described and sev eral aspects affecting the usefulness of the strains are discussed. (C ) 1995 by John Wiley and Sons, Inc.