<Table> <Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> This article is missing information about the history of the subject . Please expand the article to include this information . Further details may exist on the talk page . (January 2012) </Td> </Tr> </Table> <Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> This article is missing information about the history of the subject . Please expand the article to include this information . Further details may exist on the talk page . (January 2012) </Td> </Tr> <P> In molecular biology, a reporter gene (often simply reporter) is a gene that researchers attach to a regulatory sequence of another gene of interest in bacteria, cell culture, animals or plants . Certain genes are chosen as reporters because the characteristics they confer on organisms expressing them are easily identified and measured, or because they are selectable markers . Reporter genes are often used as an indication of whether a certain gene has been taken up by or expressed in the cell or organism population . </P> <P> To introduce a reporter gene into an organism, scientists place the reporter gene and the gene of interest in the same DNA construct to be inserted into the cell or organism . For bacteria or prokaryotic cells in culture, this is usually in the form of a circular DNA molecule called a plasmid . It is important to use a reporter gene that is not natively expressed in the cell or organism under study, since the expression of the reporter is being used as a marker for successful uptake of the gene of interest . </P>

The study of proteins that genes create or express is called