Have the biosynthetic pathways, leading to the production of luciferin and the genes responsible, been identified?
Funny you asked this, because I was dreaming about a bioluminescent Christmas Tree the other day.
To answer the first question, yes there are transgenic plants that have the gene for luciferin.
http://www.bio.davidson.edu/people/kabernd/seminar/2002/edible/pt.htm
:-P there's already a patent for it too:
http://www.google.com/patents?hl=en&lr=&vid=USPAT7049483&id=D613AAAAEBAJ&oi=fnd&dq=transgenic+bioluminescent+tree&printsec=abstract#v=onepage&q=transgenic%20bioluminescent%20tree&f=false
If it has been done do you think bioluminiscent trees can be created?? And if so whats the hold up?
It's metabolically too expensive. You'd really have to figure out a way to metabolically engineer it to meet that demand. There might be a lot of other complications along the way since there's a myriad of chemical pathways and reactions that gets involved. Not a straightforward strategy, but progress is being made in synthetic bio so stay tuned.
The circadian clock community uses promoter:luciferase transformed plants with exogenous application of luciferin as a standard tool for their analysis. The luminescence signal needs to be detected by a lumi-imager or other tool though. If you need a detailed explanation, feel free to contact me directly.
You may also want to give this website a look: http://www.glowingplant.com/
Sean! i saw this project when it was still a kickstarter iniciative.. It was supposed to be done on late 2014, but i haven't heard any news on it. There is a lot potential in using a plant synthetic biology approach and I hope they do achieve it ,or at least lay a foundation for someone else to do it.
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