Glow-in-the-Dark Tobacco Plants Can Light Up Your Home Without Electricity

Source from:  GMA News 01/29/2014

From Bioglow, a company from St Louis specializing in genetic engineering, comes a rather convincing argument in favor of having more plants inside your house.

The Starlight Avatar-a genetically-modified version of the ornamental tobacco species Nicotiana alata-emits light bright enough to be seen by the naked human eye.

After years of extensive research and development, the company has announced that the first twenty samples of this autonomously luminescent (or, as molecular biologist Alexander Krichevsky puts it, "autoluminescent") plant will soon be up for auction, with a starting bid of $1. However, the actual date of the auction has yet to be announced.

Shine bright, like bacteria

First made known to the world in 2010 via Krichevsky's study in the journal PLOS ONE, the Starlight Avatar has been genetically engineered to possess a "complete metabolic pathway required for light emission," naturally generating a blue-green light without relying on chemicals or external black light sources. Krichevsky's team used genetic material from bioluminescent marine bacteria in order to enhance the plant's chloroplast genome and allow it to glow on its own.
 
"Evolutionary conservation of the prokaryotic gene expression machinery enabled expression of the six genes of the lux operon in chloroplasts[,] yielding plants that are capable of autonomous light emission," wrote Krichevsky's team in their paper. "This work demonstrates that complex metabolic pathways of prokaryotes can be reconstructed and function in plant chloroplasts[,] and that transplastomic plants can emit light that is visible by naked eye."

The first of its kind

According to Krichevsky, while bioluminescent plants have already been produced in laboratories during the last two decades, the Starlight Avatar is the first plant that naturally glows by itself.

"[Earlier bioluminescent plants] needed to be sprayed with chemicals to achieve a temporary and very weak glowing effect, or be illuminated by UV lights," noted Krichevsky. "Starlight Avatar… glows on its own (no chemicals or UV lights needed) and is visible to a human eye with minimal adaptation time. The light emission is integral and natural to the plant, same as it is for fireflies, and will continue through plant's life cycle and from generation to generation.'"

Despite what its genealogy might suggest, the Starlight Avatar has a pleasant jasmine scent. Unfortunately, the plant can only survive for 2-3 months, as much of its energy is consumed in order for it to glow.

The company is currently working on increasing the plant's lifespan, as well as developing variants that give out yellow-toned or red-toned light. The researchers are even considering the possibility of engineering plants that could change colors based on the level of pollution or stress factors in their environment, or flowers with leaves and petals that glow in different colors.

The scientists also believe that it would eventually be possible to use these plants as energy sources - environment-friendly substitutes for electricity-powered lights that would also save money in the process.

Here's hoping they could start working on autoluminescent carrots and apples further down the line, if only to give the term "glow foods" a whole new meaning. Enditem