Boston, Dec 14 (PTI) MIT scientists have found a way toinduce plants to give off dim light by embedding specialisednanoparticles into their leaves, a major step towards usingplants to illuminate the workspace.
This technology could also be used to provide low-intensity indoor lighting, or to transform trees into self-powered streetlights, the researchers said.
"The vision is to make a plant that will function as adesk lamp - a lamp that you don't have to plug in. The lightis ultimately powered by the energy metabolism of the plantitself," said Michael Strano, Professor at MassachusettsInstitute of Technology (MIT) in the US.
To create the glowing plants, the team turned toluciferase, the enzyme that gives fireflies their glow.
Luciferase acts on a molecule called luciferin, causingit to emit light.
Another molecule called co-enzyme A helps the processalong by removing a reaction byproduct that can inhibitluciferase activity.
The team packaged each of these three components into adifferent type of nanoparticle carrier.
The nanoparticles, which are all made of materials thatthe US Food and Drug Administration classifies as "generallyregarded as safe," help each component get to the right partof the plant.
They also prevent the components from reachingconcentrations that could be toxic to the plants.
In the study published in the journal Nano Letters, theresearchers used silica nanoparticles about 10 nanometres indiameter to carry luciferase, and they used slightly largerparticles of the polymers PLGA and chitosan to carryluciferin and coenzyme A, respectively.
To get the particles into plant leaves, the researchersfirst suspended the particles in a solution.
Plants were immersed in the solution and then exposed tohigh pressure, allowing the particles to enter the leavesthrough tiny pores called stomata.
Particles releasing luciferin and coenzyme A weredesigned to accumulate in the extracellular space of themesophyll, an inner layer of the leaf, while the smallerparticles carrying luciferase enter the cells that make upthe mesophyll.
The PLGA particles gradually release luciferin, whichthen enters the plant cells, where luciferase performs thechemical reaction that makes luciferin glow.
The researchers' early efforts at the start of theproject yielded plants that could glow for about 45 minutes,which they have since improved to 3.5 hours.
The light generated by one 10-centimetre watercressseedling is currently about one-thousandth of the amountneeded to read by.
However, the researchers believe they can boost the lightemitted, as well as the duration of light, by furtheroptimising the concentration and release rates of thecomponents. PTI SARSAR.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.