Construction of a reporter vector system for in vivo promoter analysis in Propionibacterium

Laboratory of Microbial Gene Technology & Food Microbiology, Department of Chemistry, Biotechnology and Food Science, Norwegian University of Life Sciences (UMB), P. O. Box 5003, N-1432 Ås, Norway

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: dag.anders.brede{at}umb.no.

	Abstract

A ß-galactosidase reporter system for analysis of promoter elements in Propionibacterium was designed. The pTD210 in vivo reporter vector was constructed using a promoterless lacZ gene from Bifidobacterium longum cloned in the pAMT1 plasmid. The utility of the pTD210 reporter vector was demonstrated by investigation of six predicted promoters in Propionibacterium freudenreichii. The system produced accurate and reproducible measurements that facilitated both promoter identification and quantification of their activities.