Also: luciferase, NanoLuc, glowing plants
Luciferase enzymes make living things glow. Scientists use them as light-up reporters and have even made glowing plants.
Readiness: lab lab studies · prototype demonstrated objects · commercial products or buildings in real use · review summaries of other studies.
de Wet and colleagues described the firefly luciferase gene and expressed it in mammalian cells.
Built / tested: reporter assays
As reported in: de Wet, Wood, DeLuca et al. (1987). Firefly luciferase gene: structure and expression in mammalian cells.. Molecular and Cellular Biology. doi:10.1128/MCB.7.2.725
Hall and colleagues engineered a small, bright luciferase from a deep-sea shrimp.
As reported in: Hall, Unch, Binkowski et al. (2012). Engineered Luciferase Reporter from a Deep Sea Shrimp Utilizing a Novel Imidazopyrazinone Substrate. ACS Chemical Biology. doi:10.1021/cb3002478
Kotlobay and colleagues decoded the genetically encodable glowing system of fungi.
As reported in: Kotlobay, Sarkisyan, Mokrushina et al. (2018). Genetically encodable bioluminescent system from fungi. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. doi:10.1073/pnas.1803615115
Mitiouchkina and colleagues made plants that glow on their own using fungal genes.
Built / tested: glowing plants
As reported in: Mitiouchkina, Mishin, Somermeyer et al. (2020). Plants with genetically encoded autoluminescence. Nature Biotechnology. doi:10.1038/s41587-020-0500-9