Sequence: Renilla-luciferin 2-monooxygenase (EC 1.13.12.5) - sea pansy (Renilla reniformis) (fragment)

Conserved Domain     Related Protein 3D Structures

FLuc (firefly luciferase) is the prototypical bioluminescent reporter gene from Photinus pyralis.[1] The enzyme catalyzes the oxidation luciferin via luciferin-AMP to produce light. FLuc is used in cell-based reporter gene-based assays for screening small molecule chemical libraries [2]. However, small molecule luciferase inhibitors present in most large chemical libraries are often enriched in the output of high throughput screens using this reporter sometimes complicating interpretation and candidate selection [3].

RLuc is a bioluminescent reporter gene luciferase from Renilla reniformis, also known as the sea pansy. RLuc uses the luciferin substrate coelenterazine. RLuc is often used in combination with the nonhomologous luciferase FLuc (firefly luciferease) as a trasfection or pathway normalization control [4]. Recently, non-homologous reporters have been described for high throughput screening 'coincidence' reporter gene strategies [5].

1. Fan F, Wood KV (2007) Bioluminescent assays for high-throughput screening. Assay Drug Dev Technol 5: 127-136.

2. Thorne N, Inglese J, Auld DS (2010) Illuminating insights into firefly luciferase and other bioluminescent reporters used in chemical biology. Chem Biol 17: 646-657.

3. Thorne N, Shen M, Lea WA, Simeonov A, Lovell S, et al. (2012) Firefly luciferase in chemical biology: a compendium of inhibitors, mechanistic evaluation of chemotypes, and suggested use as a reporter. Chem Biol 19: 1060-1072.

4. Michelini E, Cevenini L, Mezzanotte L, Coppa A, Roda A (2010) Cell-based assays: fuelling drug discovery. Anal Bioanal Chem 398: 227-238.

5. Cheng KC, Inglese J (2012) A coincidence reporter-gene system for high-throughput screening. Nat Methods 9: 937.

Biochemical renilla luciferase enzyme assay
For PubChem
NCGC Assay Protocol Summary:

Reagents: 50mM Tris acetate, pH 7.5; 100uM NaCl; 5uM Coelenterazine H (Promega #S2011); 0.01% Tween-20; 0.05% BSA; 1nM R. reniformis luciferase (Nanolight Technologies #314)
Control compounds used were a known renilla luciferase inhibitor BTS (Tocris Biosciences #1870) and DMSO.

Assay Summary:
Three microliters containing renilla luciferase substrate in buffer (final concentrations: 50mM Tris acetate, pH 7.5, 100uM NaCl, 0.01% Tween-20, 0.05% BSA, 5uM coelenterazine h) are dispensed into each well of a Greiner white, solid-bottom 1536-well format plate using a flying reagent dispenser (FRD). These assay plates were then treated with 23nL of compound or DMSO using a Kalypsys pin tool, which allows for delivery of a 7-point interplate titration of each compound to the assay plate (quantitative HTS), with final compound concentrations ranging from approximately 60uM to 300pM. One microliter of renilla luciferase in 50mM Tris-acetate buffer was then delivered by FRD to each well for a final enzyme concentration of 1nM. Luciferase activity was then measured using an Envision plate reader (PerkinElmer), with an average incubation time of 2 min.

Compound Ranking:

1. Compounds are first classified as having full titration curves, partial modulation, partial curve (weaker actives), single point activity (at highest concentration only), or inactive. See data field "Curve Description". For this assay, apparent inhibitors are ranked higher than compounds that showed apparent activation.
2. For all inactive compounds, PUBCHEM_ACTIVITY_SCORE is 0. For all active compounds, a score range was given for each curve class type given above. Active compounds have PUBCHEM_ACTIVITY_SCORE between 40 and 100. Inconclusive compounds have PUBCHEM_ACTIVITY_SCORE between 1 and 39. Fit_LogAC50 was used for determining relative score and was scaled to each curve class' score range.