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#PlantScienceClassics #11: The GUS reporter system. In 1987 Richard Jefferson & colleagues from @michaelbevan565's lab published the first reporter system to monitor promoter activity in planta in the @embojournal: doi.org/10.1002/j.1460… 
In the 1980s it was possible to express transgenes in cells of different organisms, but visualizing & assaying gene expression was still problematic. The lacZ β-galactosidase was a commonly used reporter, but compromised due to endogenous enzymes breaking down its substrates too.
So Jefferson developed the Escherichia coli uidA-encoded β-glucuronidase (GUS) reporter during his PhD in David Hirsh’s lab @CUBoulder. Adding a GUS-substrate to Caenorhabditis elegans carrying the GUS-reporter led to a colorful precipitate in all tissues with GUS expression.
