Simultaneous analysis of bacterioferritin gene expression and intracellular iron status in Pseudomonas putida KT2440 by using a rapid dual luciferase reporter assay

A newly developed dual luciferase reporter (DLR) system is applied to strain KT2440 of Pseudomonas putida to assay its intracellular iron status and three putative bacterioferritin gene (Bfr, bfr[alpha], bfr[beta]) expressions. The results obtained from sensitive and reproducible DLR revealed that the expression of bfr (PP4856) is inversely related to the iron concentration and hence is more likely to encode a Dps-like protein rather than a bacterioferritin.