Research to make the plants shine without electricity to make them lighter than the lamps is underway at MIT

Research on plants that can emit lights themselves and illuminate their surroundings even in the dark by incorporating a firefly lighting mechanism into the leaves is underway in the laboratory of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Research is still in the early stages, but in the future there is a possibility that plants can be used as "lighting equipment" to give the brightness enough to read books under plants, or to illuminate the entire room with a bonito It is.

Engineers create plants that glow | MIT News
http://news.mit.edu/2017/engineers-create-nanobionic-plants-that-glow-1213

Researchers Are Working on Plants That Could Glow Bright Enough to Replace Lamps - Motherboard
https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/vbz78j/researchers-are-working-on-bioluminescent-plants-that-glow

This research was conducted by MITStrano Research GroupBelong toSeonyeong KwakWhat do the doctoral researchers focus on. According to the contents announced this time, the research team has succeeded in letting the part of the leaf shine for 4 hours by injecting the same luciferase as that which is contained in firefly body on the plant leaf. You can see the situation in the following movie.

Glowing plants - YouTube


This time, the research team added the luciferase "Kyle", "Watercress, Rucola", spinach and other plant leavesLuciferaseBy soaking in and so on, we succeeded in shining a part of it.


The energy necessary for luminescence is generated by the metabolic action of the plants themselves, and it is not necessary to supply from the outside. At the moment, we have succeeded in continuing to release a slight light for 4 hours.


LuciferaseLuciferinIt reacts with molecules called luminescence, but there is a characteristic that emission is weakened by the byproducts produced at that time. Therefore, the research team has developed an enzyme "Coenzyme AWe are trying to make the light emission efficient by adding ".


When injecting these substances into plants, first prepare a solution in which the substance is dissolved, and immerse the leaves of the plant in it. And by applying pressure to the solution, we sent the substance into the cellular tissue of the leaf through the small opening "pore" which the leaf breathes. And the substances sent in this way will emit light based on the energy produced by the metabolism of the plants themselves.


Plants that emit light have been developed, but in any case they are technologies using genetic engineering, and the examples that can be applied are limited. However, it is thought that the method being studied this time can be applied to a wider variety of plants.


The research team is expecting to realize a plant that will shine stronger and longer more in the future. If it is realized, it will be possible to use a plant that continually illuminates the room even without power supply, and technology that uses street trees themselves as street lights.


Although it is a technology different from this research, in 2013, the project "Glowing Plants" replacing a shining plant with an artificial light was gathering funds with Kickstarter, but this was brought to a halt on the way It was.

Project "Glowing Plants" to replace shining plant with artificial light is in progress - GIGAZINE