Abstract

Autoluminescent plants engineered to express a bacterial bioluminescence gene cluster in plastids have not been widely adopted because of low light output. We engineered tobacco plants with a fungal bioluminescence system that converts caffeic acid (present in all plants) into luciferin and report self-sustained luminescence that is visible to the naked eye. Our findings could underpin development of a suite of imaging tools for plants.

摘  要

通过在植物的质体中表达细菌生物发光基因簇，从而人为构建出自发光的植物，然而由于自发光比较微弱，这种植物的应用推广还未普遍。本文中，作者通过向烟草中遗传转化了一个真菌生物发光系统，该系统可以将所有植物均存在的咖啡酸转化为荧光素，从而获得肉眼可见的可持续自发光。本文的发现为植物的成像工具开发奠定了基础。

Time-lapse imaging of flowers.

p.s. 前几天推送的一篇eLife的文章跟这篇用的同样的方法，也是通过在植物中构建真菌生物发光系统，从而达到植物自发光的效果。eLife：植物定制化自动生物发光报告系统