Luciferase Plasmid Collection
Luciferase is the enzyme responsible for bioluminescence found in a variety of organisms, ranging from bacteria to aquatic animals to insects. Luciferase catalyzes the oxidation of a substrate, leading to the emission of photons. Its robust signal, sensitivity, wide dynamic range, and resistance to photobleaching have made luciferase a popular tool for scientists. Regulatory elements such as promoters, enhancers and untranslated regions, or shRNA or CRISPR target sites can be inserted into a luciferase-containing plasmid and the effects on gene expression can be measured by the luminescence output.
The most popular types of luciferase found in Addgene's collection include:
The mammalian codon-optimized version of firefly luciferase is often referred to as Luc2. Other luciferases in our collection include the red and green Click-beetle luciferases (CBRluc and CBGluc, respectively), Cypridina luciferase, and Luciola luciferase.
Each type of luciferase has advantages and disadvantages depending on the application, and different luciferases require different substrates and detection wavelengths. Firefly luciferase is brighter than Renilla luciferase, but is more susceptible to enzyme inhibition. Both firefly and Renilla luciferase have short protein half-lives, making them useful as transcriptional reporters, but are less-than-ideal protein tags due to their large size (61 kDa and 36 kDa, respectively). And they are not secreted, so cells must be lysed or the substrate must be delivered intracellularly to measure luminescence. Gaussia luciferase is secreted and more stable, enabling time course experiments, but is too dim for some applications. NanoLuc® is small (19 kDa), very bright, and ATP-independent, and a secreted version of the protein is available, making it ideal for a variety of applications.
To learn more and plan your experiment, check the plasmid's original publication or read our Luciferase blog post.
Empty Backbones
Browse or search for popular empty backbone plasmids into which you can clone your regulatory element or gene of interest into to create a luciferase reporter. Unless otherwise noted, these plasmids are meant for expression in mammalian systems.
ID | Plasmid | Luciferase Type(s) | Description | PI | |
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64784 | pGL3-Basic-IRES | Firefly | Insertion of 5' promoter/enhancer regions | Joshua Mendell | |
60323 | pGL4.23-GW | Firefly | Insertion of 5' promoter/enhancer regions using Gateway cloning. | Jorge Ferrer | |
16539 | pBV-Luc | Firefly | Insertion of 5' promoter/enhancer regions | Bert Vogelstein | |
12178 | pIS0 | Firefly | Insertion of target sequence in the 3' UTR | David Bartel | |
12179 | pIS1 | Renilla | Insertion of target sequence in the 3' UTR | David Bartel | |
12177 | pIS2 | Renilla | Insertion of target sequence in the 3' UTR | David Bartel | |
101139 | pCMV-IRES-Renilla Luciferase-IRES-Gateway-Firefly Luciferase (pIRIGF) | Firefly, Renilla | Creating ORF-Firefly luciferase gene fusions. Renilla luciferase under the control of a CMV promoter is present for normalization | William Kaelin | |
71248 | pXPG | Firefly | Insertion of 5' promoter/enhancer regions. Mutations within the luciferase gene allow for increased copy number in E. coli and expression of luciferase in the cytoplasm of mammalian cells | Peter Cockerill | |
212936 | pGL3 Basic Vector | Firefly | Vector for investigating regions controlling transcription | Debrya Groskreutz | |
18760 | MSCV IRES Luciferase | Firefly | Retroviral expression of firefly luciferase and gene of interest | Scott Lowe | |
21375 | pHIV-Luciferase | Firefly | Lentiviral vector for insertion of your gene of interest upstream of IRES-firefly luciferase. | Bryan Welm | |
87067 | pcDNA3.1-ccdB-Nanoluc | NanoLuc® | Creation of N-terminal Nanoluc fusions using Gateway cloning | Mikko Taipale | |
87075 | pLenti6.2-ccdB-Nanoluc | NanoLuc® | Creation of C-terminal Nanoluc fusions using Gateway cloning. Lentival. | Mikko Taipale | |
87078 | pLenti6.2-Nanoluc-ccdB | NanoLuc® | Creation of N-terminal Nanoluc fusions using Gateway cloning. Lentiviral. | Mikko Taipale | |
12563 | PCD FL0X | Firefly | Insertion of imperfect miRNA sequence in the 3' UTR | Carl Novina | |
33154 | pAC-Luc | Firefly | Creation of N-terminal Firefly fusions in Drosopholia | Michael Rosbash | |
128046 | pGL3basic luciferase and renilla_polyA | Firefly, Renilla | Dual reporter vector. Insertion of 5' promoter/enhancer regions upstream of Firefly luciferase. Renilla luciferase is co-expressed. | Oskar Laur | |
87070 | pcDNA3.1-Nanoluc-ccdB | NanoLuc® | Creation of N-terminal Nanoluc fusions using Gateway cloning | Mikko Taipale | |
106253 | pLS-mP-Luc | Firefly | Insertion of 5' promoter/enhancer regions. Lentiviral | Nadav Ahituv | |
212935 | pGL4.84(hRlucCP/Puro) | RapidResponse™ Renilla | Vector for investigating regions controlling transcription | Pete Stecha | |
212933 | pGL4.82(hRluc/Puro) | Renilla | Vector for investigating regions controlling transcription | Pete Stecha | |
106292 | pLS-SV40-mP-Rluc | Renilla | Insertion of 5' promoter/enhancer regions. Lentiviral | Nadav Ahituv | |
108228 | pGreen2x35SLUC | Firefly, Renilla | Creating ORF-Firefly luciferase gene fusions in plants. Renilla luciferase under the control of a CMV promoter is present for normalization. | Alejandro Ferrando | |
114670 | pGL3-TK-5UTR-BsmBI-Luciferase | Firefly | Insertion of 5' promoter/enhancer regions. Blue/white screening can be used for screening of transformants in cloning process. | Lynne Postovit | |
64034 | pGL4Luc-RLuc | Firefly, Renilla | Dual reporter reporter vector allowing the study of biscistronic promoters. | Daniel Christophe | |
119760 | pSGDlucV3.0 | Firefly, Renilla | Dual reporter vector. Insertion of 5' promoter/enhancer regions upstream of Firefly luciferase. Renilla luciferase is expressed from a T7 promoter for normalization. | John Atkins | |
174050 | pGWB-nLUC | Firefly | Creation of N-terminal Firefly luciferase fragment for split-luciferase complementation assay in plants using Gateway cloning. Use with 174051 | Alberto Macho | |
174051 | pGWB-cLUC | Firefly | Creation of C-terminal Fifrefly luciferase fragment for split-luciferase complementation assay in plants using Gateway cloning. Use with 174050 | Alberto Macho | |
136010 | psi-CHECK3 | Firefly, Renilla | Insertion of 3' UTR sequences downstream of Renilla luciferase. Firefly luciferase expression under the control of a HSV TK promoter for normalization. Modified from psi-CHECK2 so both Renilla and Firefly luciferase contain introns | Anthony Leung |
Expression Constructs
Luciferase driven by a strong constitutive promoter can be used to monitor transfection or viral infection efficiency, to study changes in cell physiology, or as a reference level of expression. Browse or search for popular plasmids expressing luciferase. We also offer ready-to-use AAV preparations of select luciferase expression plasmids.
ID | Plasmid | Luciferase Type | Promoter | Description | PI | |
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60226 | AAV:ITR-U6-sgRNA(backbone)-pEFS-Rluc-2A-Cre-WPRE-hGHpA-ITR | Renilla | EF1α | AAV-CRISPR knockout plasmid. Renilla luciferase is used to monitor viral transfection | Feng Zhang | |
21471 | pLenti PGK V5-LUC Neo (w623-2) | Firefly | PGK | Lentiviral expression of firefly luciferase | Eric Campeau | |
21474 | pLenti CMV V5-LUC Blast (w567-1) | Firefly | CMV | Lentiviral expression of firefly luciferase | Eric Campeau | |
18964 | Luciferase-pcDNA3 | Firefly | CMV | Mammalian expression of firefly luciferase | William Kaelin | |
60495 | pSBtet-GP | Firefly | TRE | Dox-inducible expression of firefly luciferase | Eric Kowarz | |
18782 | MSCV Luciferase PGK-hygro | Firefly | SV40 | Retroviral expression of firefly luciferase | Scott Lowe | |
105621 | Lenti-luciferase-P2A-Neo | Firefly | EF1α | Lentiviral expression of firefly luciferase | Christopher Vakoc | |
33307 | Ubc.Luc.IRES.Puro | Firefly | Ubc | Lentiviral expression of firefly luciferase | Linzhao Cheng | |
74444 | pLenti.PGK.blast-Renilla_Luciferase | Renilla | PGK | Lentiviral expression of Renilla luciferase | Reuben Shaw | |
48688 | pUltra-Chili-Luc | Firefly | Ubc | Lentiviral expression of firefly luciferase and dTomato. A gene of interest can also be inserted into the plasmid. | Malcolm Moore | |
51819 | Syn-ATP | Firefly (modified) | CMV | Optical reporter of presynaptic ATP | Timothy Ryan | |
24348 | pAC-hRluc | Renilla | Actin5C | Insect expression of Renilla luciferase | Liqun Luo | |
51970 | Nano-lantern/pcDNA3 | Nano-lantern | CMV | Mammalian expression of Nano-lantern | Takeharu Nagai | |
87121 | pcDNA-RLuc8 | Renilla | CMV | Mammalian expression Renilla luciferase mutant Rluc8, which has increased stability and light output | Sanjiv Sam Gambhir | |
104587 | pHIV-iRFP720-E2A-Luc | Firefly | EF1α | Lentiviral expression of firefly luciferase and iRFP720 from a bicistronic promoter | Antonius Plagge | |
118017 | pLX313-Firefly luciferase | Firefly | EF1α | Lentiviral expression of firefly luciferase | William Hahn, David Root | |
118016 | pLX313-Renilla luciferase | Renilla | EF1α | Lentiviral expression of Renilla luciferase | William Hahn, David Root | |
105533 | pAAV.CMV.Luc.IRES.EGFP.SV40 | Firefly | CMV | AAV expression of firefly luciferase and GFP | James Wilson | |
22522 | phGluc | Gaussia | EF1α | Expression of Gaussia luciferase; GFP is expressed if cells are infected with virus | Christopher Buck | |
98580 | pLX304 Luciferase-V5 blast | Firefly | CMV | Lentiviral expression of firefly luciferase with a V5 tag | Kevin Janes | |
99283 | pCW57.1-Luciferase | Firefly | TRE | Lentiviral vector with dox- or tet-inducible luciferase expression | Stephen Tapscott | |
83281 | pAAV-CAG-FLuc | Firefly | CAG | AAV expression of firefly luciferase | Mark Kay | |
105532 | pAAV.CMV.ffLuciferase.SV40 | Firefly | CMV | AAV expression of firefly luciferase | James Wilson | |
101156 | T7-CMVtrans-FFLuc-polyA | Firefly | T7 | Expression of firefly luciferase from a cell-free mammalian cell lysate | Marcel Bruchez | |
108542 | pLenti-EF1a-Luciferase-IRES-Blast-WPRE | Firefly | EF1α | Lentiviral expression of firefly luciferase | Javier Alcudia | |
113442 | pcDNA3.1 NL | NanoLuc® | CMV | Mammalian expression of Nanoluc with a N-terminal Myc tag | Erich Wanker | |
124701 | pLenti-PGK-Venus-Akaluc (neo) | Akaluc | hPGK | Lentiviral expression of Venus-Aka-luciferase | Roland Friedel | |
102320 | FUW-RLuc-T2A-PuroR | Renilla | Ubc | Lentiviral Expression of Renilla luciferase | Rudolf Jaenisch | |
113450 | pLenti NL | NanoLuc® | Ubc | Lentiviral expression of Nanoluc with a N-terminal Myc tag | Erich Wanker | |
115352 | pFL-SV40 | Firefly | SV40 | Mammalian expression of firefly luciferase | Ming-Chih Lai | |
100984 | pGL4.18 CMV-Luc | Firefly | CMV | Mammalian expression of firefly luciferase | Lee Helman | |
131860 | pZmUBQ:LUC | Firefly | ZmUBQ | Plant expression of firefly luciferase from the Zea mays ubiquitin promoter. | Paul Schulze-Lefert | |
83282 | pAAV-CAG-RLuc | Renilla | CAG | AAV expression of Renilla luciferase | Mark Kay | |
83280 | pscAAV-CAG-RLuc | Renilla | CAG | Vector for packaging self-complementary AAV expressing Renilla luciferase | Mark Kay | |
140328 | pLenti-PGK-Venus-Fluc (puro) | Firefly | hPGK | Lentiviral expression of Venus-firefly luciferase | Roland Friedel | |
170575 | pCMV-FLuc | Firefly | CMV | Retroviral expression of firefly luciferase | David Nemazee | |
68216 | pEGB 35S:Luciferase:Tnos (GB0110) | Firefly | 35S | Transcriptional unit for firefly luciferase expression in plants (GoldenBraid 2.0). | Diego Orzaez | |
68215 | pEGB 35S:Renilla:Tnos (GB0109) | Renilla | 35S | Transcriptional unit for Renilla luciferase expression in plants (GoldenBraid 2.0). | Diego Orzaez | |
118069 | MLRV | Multiple | Multiple | Multi-luciferase reporter vector including five transcriptional reporters for NF-kb, TGF-b, c-Myc, p53, and MAPK/JNK plus a constitutive control. | Koen Venken | |
133315 | pMKV060 | Firefly | AtUbi10 | BeYDV replicon on T-DNA backbone expressing firefly luc for monitoring plant transfection. | Daniel Voytas | |
133312 | pMKV057 | Firefly | AtUbi10 | BeYDV replicon on T-DNA backbone expressing WUS2 and IPT, with firefly luc for monitoring plant transfection. | Daniel Voytas | |
181934 | pC0037 | Gaussia, Cypridina | EF1α, CMV | Dual secreted luciferase reporter (EF1α-Gaussia luciferase, CMV-Cypridina luciferase). | Feng Zhang |
Reporter Constructs
Already know what gene or regulatory element that you need a luciferase reporter for? Browse or use the search box to find a construct that contains your regulatory element of interest.
ID | Plasmid | Description | Gene/Insert | PI |
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Other Highlighted Tools
Modified/Novel Luciferases
Engineered variants of luciferases with altered emission, substrate use, stability, or other features.
- AkaLuc: Engineered to use the substrate Akalumine with significantly brighter signal and emission in the near-infrared range, ideal for in vivo imaging.
- teLuc: Red-shifted bioluminescence when paired with diphenylterazine (DTZ).
- LuxSit-i and neoLux1.2: Artificial luciferases desined de novo using deep-learning approaches.
Split Luciferase
Complementation assays can report on protein-protein interactions, drug-induced changes, and more.
- NanoBit (Link opens in a new window): The NanoLuc® enzyme is split into Large (LgBiT; 18 kDa) and Small (SmBiT; 11 amino acids) fragments for protein-protein interaction assays. Each target protein is fused to either LgBiT or SmBiT and upon interaction, the NanoBiT subunits form an active enzyme, generating luminescence. Find plasmids with LgBit and SmBit.
- Cluc-FKBP and FRB-Nluc: Split firefly luciferase reporter of rapamycin-inducible interaction.
- nLuc and cLuc: Constructs for split firefly luciferase complementation assays in plants.
Bioluminescence Resonance Energy Transfer (BRET)
Similar to FRET, energy transfer from the luciferase reaction to an acceptor fluorophore can provide more flexibility in emission colors and imaging without the need for an illumination source. BRET can be particularly useful for in vivo imaging or creating biosensors. Read more about BRET on our blog.
- Nano-Lanterns: Fluorescent proteins fused to Renilla luciferase (Nano-lanterns) or NanoLuc® (Enhanced Nano-lanterns and Antares) for in vivo imaging.
- NanoBRET: Constructs using NanoLuc® as a BRET energy donor and HaloTag labeled with a fluorophore as the acceptor.
- LumiFluors: EGFP-NanoLuc (GpNLuc) and LSSmOrange-NanoLuc (OgNLuc) fusions for BRET-based imaging and other applications. And see PalmGRET, a membrane-anchored version useful for labeling extracellular vesicles.
- LumiScarlet: A fusion of LumiLuc (ATP-independent luciferase derived from teLuc) fused to mScarlet-I.
Find more NanoLuc® tools, including constructs for NanoBRET and NanoBiT assays, in the Promega Plasmid Collection.
RNA Biology
Luciferase reporters can be used to study processes beyond transcription and translation.
- Splicing reporters from Younis et al., 2010 and Monteys et al., 2021.
- TREAT: Biosensor using Renilla luciferase and a Halo tag to assay mRNA turnover in real time.
- Nonsense-mediated decay reporter from Baird et al., 2018.
- Engineered circular RNAs for enhanced NanoLuc® protein production.
Other Sensors and Tools
- Optimized STARR-seq (Self-Transcribing Active Regulatory Region): Genome-wide screening of enhancers using a firefly luciferase reporter. These plasmids improve on the original STARR-seq by using the bacterial ORI as the core promoter, which was a source of false positives with the original.
- Structurally destabilized firefly luciferases: A set of three increasingly destabilized mutants which serve as sensors of proteome stress.
- pHLuc: An extracellular pH sensor consisting of a pH-sensitive GFP (superecliptic pHluorin), a pH-stable OFP (Antares), and Nanoluc®.
- CalFlux VTN: An intracellular calcium sensor created by fusing NanoLuc® and Venus fluorophore to Troponin C Ca2+ binding domain.
- Luminopsins: Luciferase-opsin fusion proteins for bioluminescent chemo-optogenetic control of neuronal signaling.
- TRUPATH Kit, ONE-GO Biosensors Kit, and G-CASE: BRET-based sensors for reporting on GPCR activity.
- AIMTOR: BRET biosensor for live imaging of mTOR signaling.
Do you have suggestions for other plasmids that should be added to this list?
Fill out our Suggest a Plasmid form or e-mail [email protected] to help us improve this resource!