Construction of a Reporter Vector for the Analysis of Bifidobacterium longum Promoters

In order to initiate studies on promoter activities in Bifidobacterium longum and to independently confirm transcriptional data generated by microarray experiments, we have constructed a versatile reporter plasmid based on a B. longum cryptic plasmid and the Escherichia coli gusA gene. The resulting plasmid, pMDY23, has been tested using three B. longum promoters.