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bioRxiv · 10.1101/809533

Building customizable auto-luminescent luciferase-based reporters in plants

Khakhar, A.·Starker, C.·Chamness, J.·Lee, N.·Imaizumi, T.·Voytas, D.
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Abstract

Bioluminescence is a powerful biological signal that scientists have repurposed to design reporters for gene expression in plants and animals. However, there are some downsides associated with the need to provide a substrate to these reporters, such as its high cost and non-uniform tissue penetration. In this work we reconstitute a fungal bioluminescence pathway (FBP) in planta using an easily composable toolbox of parts. We demonstrate that the FBP can create luminescence across various tissues in a broad range of plants without external substrate addition. We also show how our toolbox can be used to deploy the FBP in planta to build auto-luminescent reporters for the study of gene-expression and hormone fluxes. A low-cost imaging platform for gene expression profiling is also described. These experiments lay the groundwork for the future construction of programmable auto-luminescent plant traits, such as creating light driven plant-pollinator interactions or light emitting plant-based sensors.

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Khakhar, A., Starker, C., Chamness, J., Lee, N., Imaizumi, T., Voytas, D.. 2019-10-17. Building customizable auto-luminescent luciferase-based reporters in plants. https://doi.org/10.1101/809533

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