Glowing plants can light up the night sky? A review

Abstract

Luminescence, a physical phenomenon that producing cool light in vivo, has been found in bacteria, fungi, and animals but not yet in terrestrial higher plants. Through genetic engineering, it is feasible to introduce luminescence systems into living plant cells as biomarkers. Recently, some plants transformed with luminescent systems can glimmer in darkness, which can be observed by our naked eyes and provides a novel lighting resource. In this review, we summarized the bioassay development of luminescence in plant cells, followed by exampling the successful cases of glowing plants transformed with diverse luminescent systems. The potential key factors to design or optimize a glowing plant were also discussed. Our review is useful for the creation of the optimized glowing plants, which can be used not only in scientific research, but also as promising substitutes of artificial light sources in the future.

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“…This demonstrates the importance of herbaceous plants in maintaining an optimal water regime for pine growth, which is reflected in their health and ecological sustainability. Such an impact not only helps to preserve forest ecosystems, but also improves conditions for their further development and increases their biodiversity (Chun et al, 2020;Li et al, 2021).…”