I was at the aroid show last week or two and I got to talk to a good friend Homes from Thailand. I was telling him about my breeding of aroids and cannas. He then told me of cannas being used in experiments to produce ornamental plants manly cannas are weeds in Thailand and grow very fast so they make a excellent test subject. They have been giving the seeds doses of Gamma rays. Which can cause odd mutations and color changes aparently variegated leaves but I have not seen any photos as of yet on this. But while looking this up a few friends pointed me to this website talking about the Gamma rays but also something I have been reading about which is genetic modification it was done to a orchid using firefly genes to create the first plant that glows in the dark. It said all parts of the plant produce light some more than others. This is not like florecence were the plant must be charged by the sun or a light source the plant is actually creating the light. Now I am not completely for or against gene modification. It seems it could be very useful if used properly or very dangerous if missused. The fact that humans can take a gene out of another organizim not even closely related to a plant and add it to its genetic makeup is amazing to say the least. This trait should be crossed over for generations if the plant is breed with. This has been done to animal monkey mice pigs and ornamental fish. I am sure rather we like this or not we will soon be seeing it more and more.
Here is the web site
http://www.new-agri.co.uk/01-5/focuson/focuson4.html
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Plants that glow in the dark
Hmmmm, very amusing, Brian. So it is like the plant/flower of the "future"... but the future is now. It almost doesn't seem right, mixing plant and insect genes. Imagine using plants to "light" your walk-way, would make my solar lights seem... like a thing of the past.. "she still has those old solar lights around the hosta beds..." BUT like you said, we'll be seeing it more and more. The future is now.
Bet it was nice conversing with your friend Homes. I'm trying to imagine cannas growing like weeds as I'll be digging soon and hoping they over-winter to be reborn again next spring. I seem to be drawn to plants in Thailand... Thanks for sharing-B
Hey that sounds great. Screw the enviroment when someone could make my weeds lights up. I'd be able to go out in the dark and weed my garden. Or how about just making the plants that sting light up. Would save getting stung whilst rolling naked round the garden! (only joking its far to cold for that).
Seriously though i'm sure there are plants that won't cross with others (because of wrong families etc) that noone would mind if they glowed a bit. And it would be good for the enviroment in the long wrong as we wouldn't need street lights and lights on the house! I could convert my car to have a couple planted in baskets at the front to light my way. Soaking up fumes from the car infront as i drive.
Wow i'm seeing the future here. Like "hey im just out for a drive in my bush mobile" hehehehe
Mike
They must be putting in a luciferase gene. I have a background in genetics, although I deal with large animals, not plants. We use this as a "reporter gene", in other words, we attach it to genes we are interested in to let us know it is being expressed. If we see the luminescence, then the gene we attached to it is also being expressed. It is a protein, just like all other proteins. Another gene commonly used is GFP, green fluorescent protein, from a jellyfish.
:) Kim
Okay, I understand.. thanks Kim.. Mike, I think Glomobile or Glomoby sounds better! lol
Kim I have seen citrus with this Jellyfish gene and this is a bit different. The fluorescents used in this will only show up when a black light is shown over the plants. The new form uses genes from the fire fly and does not need to charge up or anything the plant produces light off its own energy. It souds amazing but I am not sure yet how much light is really being produced. Friends have already made comments on grass that lights up and other plants for roads and runways I am sure someone will be putting this to use soon.
The GFP protein will only fluoresce when exposed to blue light, but I know the luciferase is detected differently. I'm not sure about the amount of light being produced....probably related to the number of copies of this gene that was inserted and how well it is transcribed. I haven't seen anything with the luciferase gene inserted so it would be neat to see. I look at cells expressing GFP all the time with my research, in fact I did so this morning. No matter how many times I do it though, I still think it is cool.
:) Kim
I have yet to get to see the plant also they measured the light it was producing in photons. I am guessing its not extremely bright but noticable.
Hey Kim,
Any chance of sending me a bottle of that glowy gene stuff. I really fancy trying it on my cat!
Can i just get it to drink it or do i need to inject in some how?
Is it safe enough for me to drink some too? Would be cool for a while. Might stop me sleeping at night though when i close my eyes and the inside of my eyelids are glowing! Lol. How long do i stand in the sun for to charge myself up?
I'm only joking... I know you can't drink it.. you probably just rub it on instead lol
Glowmoby don't be silly. It would be a Glow'n'go heheh
Measuring in photons, not lumens, is unusual. The light may be "noticeable", but I am betting it's under viewing conditions where there's absolutely no other source of light, and that the viewer's eyes must have adjusted to the dark conditions for several minutes prior to viewing.
Glowing plants, if they could be contained (in a perfect world, which is impossible) would have novelty value. Brightly glowing plants might actually begin to cut energy costs.
This will happen, simply because it can. It won't happen in Britain. It probably won't happen in the U.S., but somewhere, someone will do it simply because both the technology and the knowledge are sufficiently widespread. This genie will unleash its "gifts" some time this century, and we'll no doubt learn our lessons the hard way.
Hopefully we can do it without completely corrupting our planetary genome, but who knows?
-Joe
P.S. This is beyond politics, or specific leaders. I'm here to talk about plants, not about which political view is the correct view, so I'll avoid any conversation that goes in that direction. :)
Yeah but Joe where do i buy this stuff to give my cat? Lol
Wouldnt a plant that glows in the dark kill its self anyway? Plants need a period of dark to live. Something to do with chlorophorm or something.
Now a glowing cat, not sure she will answer to sparky though!
Don't worry if these plants escape though cause you can just go out at night and kill them. No hiding that way.
Mike
Someone will evidently put it to horrible use.....like giving it to people so in war you can see the enemy at night!
Hap
Saves spending good money on night sight goggles!
Look on the bright side guys Lol
AAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUGHHHHHH
Hey man. Won't need the glowy stuff if thats your war cry we'll hear you comin in dark!
Just a note that this is not something you can just inject......the gene actually has to be inserted into the genome so that it is expressed. This is not an easy thing to do. And as with all transgenic research....there are those who wish to use it for good and there are others....well, I'll just leave it at that. Personally I don't see the need or the usefulness of glow-in-the-dark plants, but there is always someone who will think things like this are a good idea.
:) Kim
So when you say insert it in my genome. Is that another name for arse or something?
You are right it wouldn't be easy. I'm not very flexible. Lol
I think playing round with genes is great. My Levis are really comfy now.
What would happen to a glow in the dark night flowering plant?
Hey, maybe they could even get them to flash......The use them as signal lights....WOW....the possibilities are endless.
Hap
There are mushrooms that glow in the dark: http://botit.botany.wisc.edu/toms_fungi/oct97.html
And I would really love to have a glow-in-the-dark "Moonflower vine" and a nice big flowered G-I-T-D calla lily. A big bouquet of those would make a perfect night light.
I was simply trying to provide some of the scientific background to understand this topic. There is no need for rude comments about it.
Kim
Kim, I don't think anyone was being rude here, just having a little fun with the idea of glowing plants and other things! Making light of the subject maybe, but not being rude.
Oh oh fallen foul of my own sense of humour again.
Kim please carry on i'm actually very interested.
I've heard of magic mushrooms but ones that glow well i think thats got to be wierd!
Sorry...