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This article originally appeared on VICE US.
Bioluminescence, or life’s ability to emit light, is shown in the transient flashes of fireflies, the auroral glow of ocean plankton, and the mysterious lures of predatory animals. However, plants have never developed bioluminescence in nature, although scientists have tried to design them to glow for many decades.
Now, a team of researchers has made a breakthrough on that front by creating “bright plants that are at least an order of magnitude brighter than previously achieved,” according to a study published Monday in Biotechnology nature.
The tobacco plants, injected with DNA from bioluminescent fungi, emitted more than a billion photons per minute, achieving a “self-sustaining luminescence that is visible to the naked eye,” the study authors said.
The plants were developed by a team of scientists in collaboration with Plant LLC, a Moscow, Russia-based biotech startup looking to commercialize shiny plants. While the plants have previously been modified to emit light using bioluminescent bacteria, the new study reveals the genetically brightest plants to date.
Tobacco plants were able to achieve such high potency (metaphorically speaking) thanks to caffeic acid, which was recently identified as a central molecular driver of light emission in the bioluminescent group of Neonothopanus fungus. Since caffeic acid is also present in all plants, the team decided to introduce this fungal DNA into the genomes of tobacco plants to see if their light-emitting pathways would replicate in a botanical host.
The technique culminated in brilliant “self-luminescent” plants that are capable of producing their own light at every stage of their life cycle. Fungal DNA not only caused plants to outshine their precursors, but also shed literal light on the internal processes that occur within these leafy species.
“As plants developed, luminescence increased in the transition zone between root and stem,” the researchers said in the study. “The young shoots were brighter on the terminal and axillary buds and on the upper part of the stem; older parts of the shoot were attenuated as the plants matured. “
Similarly, the aged leaves were attenuated due to the reduced caffeic acid content, although “some leaves showed intense light emission waves during the final stages of senescence,” the team said.
The team used tobacco plants because they grow fast and are well studied, but in principle, the same technique could illuminate popular household flowers, such as periwinkle, petunia, and rose.
Stunning visions of bioluminescent plants have become popular in science fiction and fantasy, but it may not be long before you can plant bright greens in your own garden.
