Gabriel Gabriele V M, Viviani Vadim R
Laboratory of Biochemistry and Biotechnology of Bioluminescence, Department of Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics, Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar), Sorocaba, SP, Brazil.
Photochem Photobiol Sci. 2014 Dec;13(12):1661-70. doi: 10.1039/c4pp00278d. Epub 2014 Oct 6.
Firefly luciferases are widely used as bioluminescent reporter genes for bioimaging and biosensors. Aiming at simultaneous analyses of different gene expression and cellular events, luciferases and GFPs that exhibit distinct bioluminescence and fluorescence colors have been coupled with each promoter, making dual and multicolor reporter systems. Despite their wide use, firefly luciferase bioluminescence spectra are pH-sensitive, resulting in a typical large red shift at acidic pH, a side-effect that may affect some bioanalytical purposes. Although some intracellular pH-indicators employ dual color and fluorescent dyes, none has been considered to benefit from the characteristic spectral pH-sensitivity of firefly luciferases to monitor intracellular pH-associated stress, an important indicator of cell homeostasis. Here we demonstrate a linear relationship between the ratio of intensities in the green and red regions of the bioluminescence spectra and pH using firefly luciferases cloned in our laboratory (Macrolampis sp2 and Cratomorphus distinctus), allowing estimation of E. coli intracellular pH, thus providing a new analytical method for ratiometric intracellular pH-sensing. This is the first dual reporter system that employs a single luciferase gene to simultaneously monitor intracellular pH using spectral changes, and gene expression and/or ATP concentration using the bioluminescence intensity, showing great potential for real time bioanalysis of intracellular processes associated with metabolic changes such as apoptosis, cell death, inflammation and tissue acidification, among the other physiological changes.
萤火虫荧光素酶被广泛用作生物成像和生物传感器的生物发光报告基因。为了同时分析不同的基因表达和细胞事件,具有不同生物发光和荧光颜色的荧光素酶和绿色荧光蛋白已与每个启动子偶联,形成了双色和多色报告系统。尽管萤火虫荧光素酶被广泛使用,但其生物发光光谱对pH敏感,在酸性pH下会出现典型的大红移,这种副作用可能会影响某些生物分析目的。虽然一些细胞内pH指示剂使用双色荧光染料,但尚未有人考虑利用萤火虫荧光素酶特有的光谱pH敏感性来监测细胞内与pH相关的应激,这是细胞内稳态的一个重要指标。在这里,我们利用在我们实验室克隆的萤火虫荧光素酶(Macrolampis sp2和Cratomorphus distinctus)证明了生物发光光谱绿色和红色区域强度比与pH之间的线性关系,从而能够估算大肠杆菌细胞内的pH,为比率型细胞内pH传感提供了一种新的分析方法。这是第一个使用单个荧光素酶基因的双报告系统,它可以利用光谱变化同时监测细胞内pH,利用生物发光强度监测基因表达和/或ATP浓度,在实时生物分析与代谢变化相关的细胞内过程(如细胞凋亡、细胞死亡、炎症和组织酸化等其他生理变化)方面显示出巨大潜力。