CHIMERIC GENE OF CATALYTIC PROTEIN OF SHRIMP LUCIFERASE AND USES THEREOF

摘要

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a reporter gene being an intracellularly expressed luciferase that uses not only coelenterazine but also analogs thereof as a substrate and possesses higher luminescent activity than the natural 19 kDa protein.SOLUTION: The invention provides luciferase variants comprising an amino acid sequence that differs from a specified amino acid sequence by that tyrosine at position 138 and at least three amino acids selected from isoleucine at position 90, proline at position 115, glutamine at position 124 and asparagine at position 166 are replaced by other amino acids.