luxAB gene fusions with the arsenic and cadmium resistance operons of Staphylococcus aureus plasmid pI258.

pC101, a novel shuttle vector between Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus carrying the lux genes encoding luciferase from Vibrio harveyi, selectable ampicillin and chloramphenicol markers and origins of replication for Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria has been constructed. The inducibility of the arsenic and cadmium operon from S. aureus plasmid pI258 to different ions has been tested in E. coli and in S. aureus with two fusions in pC101: an arsB-luxAB and a cadA-luxAB transcriptional gene fusion. Patterns of induction are influenced by the host strain and are slightly different from previous reports using the blaZ gene as reporter gene.