The US start-up Light Bio has received approval to sell its bright petunias. The US Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) had previously examined whether the genetically modified plant poses an increased risk to insects. The authorities have now given the green light, and Light Bio wants to deliver the first plants in spring 2024 – but initially only in the USA.
Unlike various animal species, such as some fish, worms, and amphibians, as well as bacteria and some fungi, plants in the wild have not developed the ability to bioluminesce. Natural substances called luciferins are responsible for the glow. When they react with oxygen, supported by the enzyme luciferase, they release energy in the form of light.
It glows green
Researchers in the field of synthetic biology have been working for years on transferring this lighting mechanism to plants. In 1986, a team succeeded in introducing firefly genes into plant cells for the first time and causing a dim glow. A research group relied on a different donor in 2020. They introduced the enzyme responsible for the glow from the DNA of the fungus Neonothopanus nambi into tobacco plants.
Karen Sarkisyan was among the scientists involved. He researches at Imperial College London, specializes in fluorescent proteins, and, as a co-founder of Light Bio, is also behind the glowing petunias. Also, the founder of Light Bio is Keith Wood, one of the authors of the 1986 publication. “We are taking a natural process from a fungus that is normally found in tropical forests and transferring that to plants,” Sarkisyan told US magazine Wired. is during the day, Neonothopanus nambi brown, but at night, it glows greenish – just like the genetically modified ornamental plants.
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