Green Glow Extends to Plants

Yesterday, I wrote about glow-in-the-dark rabbits created by researchers at the University of Hawaii and University of Istanbul.  I finished that post with the phrase “I wouldn’t mind a glow-in-the-dark houseplant to replace all the night lights around my house.  ;-)”

As Paul Harvey used to say”Now, the rest of the story.”  The San Jose Mercury News (Silicon Valley’s local newspaper) has now published an article about an entrepreneurial team trying to build my plant night-lights for me.  And I do mean for me.

New in BioTech: Glow-in-the-dark Rabbits

The glowing effect was created by injecting jellyfish DNA into the mother rabbit’s embryos and reinserting these into the mother’s womb. Source: University of Hawaii

From the world of wacky in science and technology comes a story that researchers at the University of Hawaii and the University of Istanbul have succeeded in creating rabbit embryos that glow in the dark.  Two of a litter of eight rabbits are normal white fluffy rabbits in the light, but glow green in the dark, due to bit of jellyfish DNA implanted into the embryos.

The researchers say that the green glow itself is not important, but rather the success of implanting a foreign gene to develop a foreign trait.

I wouldn’t mind a glow-in-the-dark houseplant to replace all the night lights around my house.  😉

See the article in the Guardian here:  [Link].