Glow-in-the-dark plant offered on Kickstarter

Nature : A small, leafy plant that has been synthetically engineered to glow has been offered on the crowdfunding website Kickstarter. The project was started by a group of San Franciscoâbased researchers who say they want to inspire the public regarding the possibilities of synthetic biology. They use computer software called Genome Compiler to embed firefly DNA in the plant Arabidopsis, a member of the mustard family and the plant equivalent of the laboratory mouse. According to their Kickstarter page , “The long-term idea is to replace electric or gas lighting with natural lighting from plants.” To counter criticisms that such genetically altered plants could threaten ecosystems if they escape into the wild, project manager Antony Evans says they are working to engineer the plant so that it requires a particular nutritional supplement to survive.