You all must have heard about some Eco-friendly gadgets or products in the past few years as scientists are trying their best to innovate technology inspired from nature which may be

not a permanent solution but has proved to be a simple hack for future.

Last year MIT engineers have tried to do the same. After extensive research and analysis,

they have finally created nanobionic light-emitting plants. Plant nanobionics, which is a new research area initiated by Strano’s lab who is the Carbon P. Dubbs Professor of Chemical

Engineering at MIT which focuses on the plants to be suffused with novel features. They plan to engineer plants to take over the many functions presently performed by electrical devices.

Previously, the Researchers have designed plants that can detect explosives and convey that

information to a smartphone. In future, the researchers are thinking to develop a way to paint or spray the nanoparticles over other plants, which looks promising for transforming the trees or other plants into light sources.

The Story Behind the Light-Emitting Plants

MIT engineers implanted specialized nanoparticles into the leaves of a watercress plant;

they stimulated the plants to give off dim light for nearly four hours. In order to create their glowing plant, the team chose the luciferase enzyme which gives fireflies their glow and acts on a molecule called luciferin, causing it to emit light. Coenzyme A is another molecule which helps the process by removing a reaction byproduct that can inhibit luciferase activity. The team used each of these three components into a different type of nanoparticles carrier.The nanoparticles which are all made of the specific type of materials which the U.S Food and Drug Administration classifies a “generally regarded as safe,” help each component get to the accurate part of the plant which also prevents the components achieving the hazardous concentrations.

Next, the researchers carried the following steps:-

About 10 nanometers of silica nanoparticles were used to carry luciferase.
Used slightly larger particles of PLGA (a copolymer which is used in a host of Food and Drug Administration) and Chitosan (made by treating the chitin shells of shrimp and other crustaceans with an alkaline substance, like sodium hydroxide.) to carry luciferin and coenzyme A respectively.
Plants were immersed in the solution and exposed to high pressure, allowing the particles to enter the leaves through stomata.
Luciferin and coenzyme A were accumulated in the extracellular space of the mesophyll.
Luciferase enters the cells that make up the mesophyll.
PLGA particles gradually release luciferin, which enters the plant cells and luciferase performs the chemical reaction that makes luciferin glow. In the initial stage of this experiment, the plant could only glow for 45 minutes which the researchers have improved to 3.5 hours. The light generated by one 10-cm watercress seedling is currently about one thousandth, of the amount needed to read by, but they believe that they can boost the light emitted, and the duration of light, by further optimizing the chemical concentration and release rates of components.

The Transformation Part

To create light-emitting plants the researchers relied on genetically engineering plants to

express the gene for luciferase but this is a strenuous process that gains extremely dim light. The method developed by Strano’s lab could be used on any type of plant and they have

demonstrated it with arugula, kale, and spinach, in addition to watercress. There’s this query that people asked that how can you switch off the plants? And to that, the researchers have already demonstrated that it can be achieved by adding nanoparticles carrying luciferase inhibitor. This could enable them to eventually create plants that stop its illumination in response to environmental conditions, such as sunlight.

Lighting accounts for about 20 percent of worldwide energy consumption and this

nanobionic may be the next great innovation for the specific lightings used on daily basis

worldwide.

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