Patent ID: 7906282

Claim:
A synthetic nucleic acid molecule comprising at least 300 nucleotides of a coding region for a luciferase, having a codon composition differing at more than 25% of the codons from a wild type nucleic acid sequence encoding the luciferase, and having at least 3-fold fewer transcription regulatory sequences relative to the average number of such sequences resulting from random selections of codons at the codons which differ, wherein the transcription regulatory sequences are selected from the group consisting of transcription factor binding sequences, intron splice sites, poly(A) addition sites and promoter sequences, wherein the luciferase encoded by the synthetic nucleic acid molecule has at least 85% sequence identity to the luciferase encoded by the wild type nucleic acid sequence, wherein the majority of the codons which differ in the synthetic nucleic acid molecule are those which are employed more frequently in mammals, and wherein the synthetic nucleic acid molecule has at least 99% sequence identity to SEQ ID NO: 22.