An evaluation of the performance of ten commercial luminometers

An assessment has been carried out of the relative performance of ten instruments for quantification of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) by the firefly luciferase assay. The instruments evaluated were Amersham Amerlite Analyser, Dynatech Tube Luminometer, Dynatech Multiplate Luminometer, Dynatech Camera Luminometer, Hamilton Lumicon, LKB 1250 Luminometer, LKB 1251 Luminometer, Lumac Biocounter M2010A, Turner 20 TD Luminometer and a prototype version of the CLEAR Speed Tech 2000. An 800-fold difference in sensitivity was found between the most sensitive (Lumac, Turner) and the least sensitive (Dynatech Tube) of the conventional instruments. The Dynatech Camera Luminometer which worked on a completely different principle to the other instruments was about 5000 times less sensitive than the best of the photomultiplier tube instruments. The relative sensitivity of the instruments was maintained regardless of whether solutions of ATP in water or trichloroacetic acid extracts of bacteria were analysed. An analysis of 960 ATP bioluminescence assays showed that data obtained from such measurements are normally distributed.