As of: February 16, 2024, 2:30 p.m
By: Ines Alms
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Decorative and easy to care for during the day, fascinating at night: the firefly petunia spreads a magical atmosphere in a natural, harmless way.
A petunia newly developed by an international team of researchers sheds light on the matter.
The white-flowering petunia (Petunia hybrida), which at first glance appears normal during the day, glows faintly fluorescently at night - but not so brightly that it would disturb sleep.
A genetic modification using genes from fungi that naturally provide light allows the plant to glow constantly.
Fast-growing parts of the plant, such as budding flowers and leaves, shine brightest.
Consumers in the United States can now pre-order the genetically modified petunia for their home or garden.
The bright petunia does not require any special care - just enough sunlight
US scientists have bred petunias that glow like fireflies at night.
© Cover Images/IMAGO
The name firefly petunia is no coincidence.
As the science magazine
Nature
reports, Keith Wood, co-founder of the company Light Bio, and his colleagues succeeded in inserting a firefly gene into tobacco plants in 1986, which caused the plants to glow gently when activated using the enzyme luciferase.
However, the plants needed special nutrition for this; the light was weak and not uniform.
In further development, genes from the bioluminescent fungus Neonothopanus nambi were inserted into a petunia.
These produce enzymes such as luciferase, which can convert naturally occurring caffeic acid from the plant's cell walls into luciferin and convert it back into caffeic acid - this creates light in a constant cycle, similar to moonshine.
This happens without any additional nutrients, without exposure to UV light and without any special care.
The plant just needs to be healthy and get enough sunlight.
You can find even more exciting garden topics in the regular newsletter from our partner 24garten.de.
There should be no danger from the petunia because, according to the researchers, this type of petunia is not native to North America and is not considered an invasive species.
The likelihood that the modified genes will spread to native plants and disrupt ecosystems is estimated to be minimal.
Petunias can be easily propagated from cuttings and the firefly petunia could also be propagated and shared in this way by plant lovers.
It is not known whether the plants will also be approved in Europe (as of February 16, 2024).
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What the future could hold for bioluminescent plants
According to Nature,
this research can
at some point be transferred to plants in agriculture - in the future, flying drones could detect early at night that the plants are sick or have other problems based on a lack of luminosity.
As the
Tagesspiegel
explains, bioluminescent trees could one day be produced, for example, which could then be used for street lighting.
It remains exciting to see what influence genetic modification of plants will continue to have - only recently the first genetically modified food, a purple tomato (Solanum lycopersicum), went on sale in the USA.