Bioluminescent Imaging of Single Bacterial Cells Using an Enhanced ilux Operon

The lux operon is a useful reporter for bioluminescence imaging due to its independence of exogenous luciferin supply, but its relatively low brightness hampers the imaging of single cells. This chapter describes a procedure for the imaging of individual Escherichia coli cells using an improved ilux operon. The enhanced brightness of ilux enables long-term bioluminescence imaging of single bacteria with high sensitivity without the requirement for an external luciferin.