diff --git a/gulpfile.js b/gulpfile.js
index da2fd6d81a..00a4e25288 100644
--- a/gulpfile.js
+++ b/gulpfile.js
@@ -434,8 +434,13 @@ gulp.task('test.js/ci', function (done) {
 gulp.task('test.dart/ci', function (done) {
   karma.start({configFile: __dirname + '/karma-dart.conf.js', singleRun: true, reporters: ['dots'], browsers: getBrowsersFromCLI()}, done);
 });
+gulp.task('test.transpiler.unittest', function (done) {
+  return gulp.src('tools/transpiler/unittest/**/*.js')
+      .pipe(jasmine())
+});
 gulp.task('ci', function(done) {
   runSequence(
+    'test.transpiler.unittest',
     'test.js/ci',
     'test.dart/ci'
   );
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index 5f8b7f8c22..9805647c0a 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@
     "node-uuid": "1.4.x"
   },
   "devDependencies": {
+    "angular": "1.3.5",
     "bower": "^1.3.12",
     "canonical-path": "0.0.2",
     "del": "~1",
@@ -43,15 +44,14 @@
     "karma-cli": "^0.0.4",
     "karma-dart": "^0.2.8",
     "karma-jasmine": "^0.2.2",
-    "merge": "^1.2.0",
-    "angular": "1.3.5",
-    "minimatch": "^2.0.1",
     "lodash": "^2.4.1",
-    "sprintf-js": "1.0.*",
-    "q": "^1.0.1",
+    "merge": "^1.2.0",
+    "minimatch": "^2.0.1",
+    "minimist": "1.1.x",
     "protractor": "1.6.x",
+    "q": "^1.0.1",
     "run-sequence": "^0.3.6",
-    "through2": "^0.6.1",
-    "minimist": "1.1.x"
+    "sprintf-js": "1.0.*",
+    "through2": "^0.6.1"
   }
 }
diff --git a/tools/transpiler/unittest/transpilertests.js b/tools/transpiler/unittest/transpilertests.js
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..4316dcc204
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tools/transpiler/unittest/transpilertests.js
@@ -0,0 +1,27 @@
+var compiler = require('../index');
+
+// fixme: copied from top of gulpfile
+var OPTIONS = {
+  sourceMaps: true,
+  annotations: true, // parse annotations
+  types: true, // parse types
+  script: false, // parse as a module
+  memberVariables: true, // parse class fields
+  outputLanguage: 'dart'
+};
+
+describe('transpile to dart', function(){
+
+  // https://github.com/angular/angular/issues/509
+  it('should not interpolate inside old quotes', function(){
+    var result = compiler.compile(OPTIONS, "test.js",
+      "var a = 1;" +
+      "var s1 = '${a}';" +
+      "var s2 = `${a}`;");
+    expect(result.js).toBe("library test;\n" +
+      "var a = 1;\n" +
+        // FIXME: this should escape the interpolation with backslash to fix the issue
+      "var s1 = '${a}';\n" +
+      "var s2 = '''${a}''';\n");
+  })
+});