Luciferases with tunable emission wavelengths

We introduce luciferases whose emission maxima can be tuned to different wavelengths by chemical labeling. These tunable luciferases are generated by inserting the small luciferase NanoLuc into the structures of the self-labeling proteins SNAP-tag or HaloTag7 near their active sites. Labeling of the tags with a fluorophore shifts the emission maximum of NanoLuc to that of the fluorophore. Luciferases with tunable colors have applications as reporter genes, for the construction of biosensors and in bioimaging.