· Good accessibility
If you are not able to get luminous bacteria from laboratory cultures you can isolate it from sea-fish or squid
· Low nutritional requirements
You do not need many ingredients and time to prepare microbiological medium for cultivation of Photobacterium phosphoreum.
· Low incubation requirements
The room temperature (20 - 22°C) is the optimal for growth of luminous bacteria. So, you do not need special equipment (e.g. incubators) to cultivate these bacteria.
· High growth rate
Weak luminescence can be observed on growing bacteria after a few hours of incubation. Well visible, bright glowing colonies of Photobacterium phophoreum can be observed after 24-48 hours of incubation.
· Luminous bacteria generally do not cause diseases
· Photobacterium phosphoreum is a good bacterium to learn the isolation of pure bacterial cultures
The luminescent ability of the bacteria allows that on a constant microbiological medium there is a brief appearance of pure, isolated cultures, even if processed by beginners.
· It is possible to use the luminescent bacteria in practical courses of molecular biology
Since bioluminescence is an unusual trait, it is very useful for teaching molecular biology methods such as isolation of DNA, making a gene library, cloning of the luciferase gene, transformation with plasmid carrying luciferase gene, luciferase gene amplification (PCR) etc.