Construction of Mobilizable Mini-Tn <i>7</i> Vectors for Bioluminescent Detection of Gram-Negative Bacteria and Single-Copy Promoter <i>lux</i> Reporter Analysis

Abstract

We describe the construction of mini-Tn7-based broad-host-range vectors encoding lux genes as bioluminescent reporters. These constructs can be mobilized into the desired host(s) by conjugation for chromosomal mini-Tn7-lux integration and are useful for localization of bacteria during infections or for characterizing regulation of promoters of interest in Gram-negative bacteria.