Can plants be engineered to glow like fireflies?

The answer

In 2020, a team led by researchers at the Russian Academy of Sciences inserted genes from the bioluminescent fungus Neonothopanus nambi into tobacco plants, creating plants that glow visibly in the dark throughout their life cycle. Unlike earlier attempts using firefly genes requiring external chemicals, this fungal pathway uses caffeic acid - naturally present in all plants - as its substrate. The resulting glow was 10 times brighter than previous attempts. MIT engineers separately created nanobionic plants using luciferase nanoparticles that glowed for nearly four hours. By 2024, the startup Light Bio began selling bioluminescent petunias called Firefly Petunias commercially in the United States for $29, marking the first commercially available glowing plant.