- Starlight Avatar claims to be the first light-emitting plant and was made by bioengineers at Bioglow, St Louis, Missouri
- Plant was created by splicing genes from bioluminescent bacteria with a pot plant called Nicotiana alata
- Firm is auctioning the first batch of glowing plants
Many people set the mood for a romantic night in with candles, but now they could use a genetically engineered glowing plant for a date with a difference.
A light-producing plant called Starlight Avatar that glows like a firefly has been created by U.S. scientists.
Bioengineers spliced genes from bioluminescent bacteria with a pot plant to create the plant, which can be used as a lamp in the dark.
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A light-producing plant called Starlight Avatar
that glows like a firefly has been created by U.S. scientists. It is
pictured in daylight (left) when it looks like a regular pot plant, but
it can be seen to emit light in darkness
THE STARLIGHT AVATAR PLANT
- The genetically engineered plant was created by splicing genes from bioluminescent bacteria with a pot plant called Nicotiana alata.
- Its creators claim it is the first light-emitting plant.
- The glow is best described as being a strong as starlight and can only be seen in a dark room.
- Starlight Avatar grows best in temperatures of around 35C in indirect sunlight.
- Direct sunlight will damage the plant within days and the company warns it is unlikely to survive outdoors.
- The plant has a life cycle of between two and three months.
- Specimens will be auctioned and shipped in transparent boxes containing nutrient-rich gel.
- The light-emitting pathway created by the scientists cannot be transferred by pollen to other plant populations.
It is a genetically-modified version of a regular pot plant called Nicotiana alata and glows continuously during its lifetime.
The firm is auctioning the first batch of glowing shrubs and taking pre-orders for further plants it is are currently nurturing.
The phenomenon of living organisms glowing in the nature is called bioluminescence.
There are over twenty independently evolved bioluminescent mechanisms found in nature as seen in glow worms, bobtail squids, deep-sea anglerfish and bacteria.
Autoluminescent plants - shrubs that produce light - are created by introducing the light-emitting pathway from marine bacteria into a plant's chloroplasts.
The company said that its plants are similar to fireflies.
Its light emission ‘machinery’ is encoded in its cells to let it constantly emit visible light during its life cycle of between two and three months.
‘The glow of Starlight Avatar is best described as comparable in strength to starlight,’ the company said.
It suggests that people should appreciate the plant’s ‘dim ambient glow’ in a darkened room and it might take a few minutes for their eyes to adjust to appreciate the effect.
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The plant was created by splicing genes from a
bioluminescent bacteria with a pot plant, allowing bioengineers to
create the plant, which can be used as a lamp (pictured)
‘After the initial glow of the plant is visible, the plant’s features and glowing parts become increasingly more prominent as the eyes continue to adjust,’the company explained.
It took Dr Alexander Krichevsk, bioengineer and the founder of Bioglow, several years to make the plant prototypes, which for the first time show that plants can emit light on their own.
The findings of his research were first described in the journal PLoS One in 2010 but it was not until December of last year that he announced the first commercially available glowing plant, named Starlight Avatar.
Scientists have been trying to create light-emitting plants for around 30 years, but Bioglow’s creation is not painted with dye and does not rely on ultraviolet light to trigger a temporary glowing effect like previous innovations.
‘Bioglow’s plants are the first autonomously luminescent, or autoluminescent, plants that emit light on their own without the need for chemicals or UV light,’ the company claims on its website.
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Scientists have been trying to create
light-emitting plants for around 30 years, but Bioglow's creation
(pictured) is not painted with dye and does not rely on ultraviolet
light to trigger a temporary glowing effect. Here the plant is pictured
in sunlight
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'Bioglow's plants are the first autonomously
luminescent, or autoluminescent, plants that emit light on their own
without the need for chemicals or UV light,' the company claims on its
website
It aims to bring cleaner, sustainable and affordable plant-based light alternatives to the world.
The plants being auctioned will be shipped in transparent boxes containing nutrient-rich gel and will grow until they fill it up, when they can be transferred to a normal plant pot.
While the plant glows in its box, the company said it improves with transfer to pots due to more open access to atmospheric oxygen.
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