The Hound of the Baskervilles, whose glowing grin in the dark brought Sir Charles Baskerville to death and almost killed Henry Baskerville in Arthur Conan Doyle's novel, was an ordinary dog. She shone only thanks to malicious intent and phosphorus on her muzzle. However, living organisms that glow in the dark on their own do exist.

Bacteria, jellyfish, molluscs, plankton, fireflies, scorpions, mushrooms (including the usual mushrooms). Today, scientists know more than eight hundred luminous living organisms. Most of them live in the seas and oceans. But scientists have not yet discovered representatives of the kingdom of Flora with the ability to bioluminescence. However, a person is not accustomed to waiting for favors from Nature: if for some reason she “didn’t think” of making luminous plants, the “crown of creation” is ready to take on this task himself.

Bioglow is the company that created the concept of the glowing plant.

There are also hunters who attract their victims with the glow of their own body. And some types of deep-sea corals, according to scientists, are capable of transforming weak short-wavelength light penetrating into the depths into brighter flashes. This phenomenon is used as a phyto-illumination for the possibility of photosynthesis of symbiotic algae colonies living in coral thickets.

Plants don't need to glow. Therefore, it took the intervention of genetic engineering, decades of work and a solid investment. Plant chloroplasts are semi-autonomous plastids that exist in symbiosis with plants. According to the hypothesis, they were once independent, like cyanobacteria related to chloroplasts, capable of luminescence. Alexander Krichevsky (St. Louis, USA) is a specialist in two areas: the study of the phenomenon of bioluminescence of marine bacteria and microbiology of plants. The scientist had the idea of ​​combining two disciplines that he knew well, which he did by creating the biotechnology company Bioglow, Inc.

Starlight Avatar: Embodiment of Starlight

The glow of Starlight Avatar (tobacco plants) is based on the introduction of a part of the firefly gene, the luciferase molecule, into the plant genome. In order for Starlight Avatar to glow, a catalyst is needed - the glow reaction occurs when luciferase is oxidized under the action of oxygen in the presence of the luciferin enzyme. Luciferin was contained in the nutrient medium in which the plant was grown.

Glow of a new generation of genetically modified plants (left) compared to Starlight Avatar (right). Photo from the sitebioglowtech.com
In 2014, Bioglow auctioned off twenty copies of glowing Starlight Avatars growing in special containers. So far, this light is very weak, but the laboratory of Alexander Krichevsky is working on increasing the brightness.

So far - from the realm of fantasy

Russian scientists working on the study of bioluminescence and the creation of self-luminous plants in the laboratory of biomolecular spectroscopy of the Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences under the leadership of Ilya Yampolsky believe that it is still too early to plan flower beds on their sites, taking into account glowing roses or peonies in the dark and uproot the hedge to change it to glowing.

They cite plant bioluminescence as one of their most ambitious projects: “The ideal, which no one has yet succeeded in, involves deciphering the entire pathway of luciferin biosynthesis, which can be a multi-step process involving a large number of proteins. Then - insertion into the genome of another organism of genes encoding all these proteins and luciferase. At the moment, the biosynthesis of only bacterial luciferin has been deciphered, but this system is difficult to adapt to plants and animals. And the implementation of such an approach seems unlikely.”

Luminous flower seeds are not yet available for purchase (unless, of course, you paid $40 for the hypothetical opportunity to get the seeds of Tal's genetically modified clover in a crowdfunding project). But don't be discouraged: on the other hand, you can buy artificial luminous stones - for decorating paths on your site, creating alpine slides that are visible even in the dark, and even for decorating the facade of a house. Well, or in extreme cases - at least for decorating an aquarium.