Dual Luciferase Reporter Assay to study relationship of protein/gene expression (CAT#: STEM-MB-0236-WXH)

Introduction

A luciferase assay is a method used to determine whether or not a protein can activate/repress the expression of a target gene. These assays can identify a functional connection between the presence of a protein and the levels of gene product produced.
The luciferase reporter gene system is a reporter system that uses luciferin as a substrate to detect luciferase activity. The luciferase catalyzes the oxidation of luciferin to oxyluciferin, and during the oxidation of luciferin, bioluminescence is emitted. The bioluminescence released during luciferin oxidation can then be measured by chemiluminescence. The bioluminescence system, luciferin and luciferase, allows extremely sensitive and efficient detection of gene expression.
A Dual-luciferase system, where there are two luciferases, one of which is used as an internal reference control, i.e. the expression is essentially constant, is used to reduce the variation inherent between treatments in the assay, while the other luciferase is used as a reporter gene to indicate the expression of the gene under different treatment conditions.