title: Autoluminescent plants.
abstract: Prospects of obtaining plants glowing in the dark have captivated the imagination of scientists and layman alike. While light emission has been developed into a useful marker of gene expression, bioluminescence in plants remained dependent on externally supplied substrate. Evolutionary conservation of the prokaryotic gene expression machinery enabled expression of the six genes of the lux operon in chloroplasts yielding plants that are capable of autonomous light emission. This work demonstrates that complex metabolic pathways of prokaryotes can be reconstructed and function in plant chloroplasts and that transplastomic plants can emit light that is visible by naked eye.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, State University of New York, Stony Brook, New York, United States of America. akrichevsky@notes.cc.sunysb.edu
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Krichevsky
authors.forename: Benjamin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Meyers
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Vainstein
authors.forename: Pal
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Maliga
authors.forename: Vitaly
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Citovsky
mesh_terms: D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D002736:Chloroplasts / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D054628:Genome, Chloroplast / Q000235:genetics; D049449:Luminescence; D010776:Photobacterium / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D030821:Plants, Genetically Modified; D014026:Nicotiana / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D001426:Bacterial Proteins; C085427:LuxI protein, Bacteria; D014157:Transcription Factors