Fluorescence in plants
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All plants, algae, and cyanobacteria are naturally fluorescent, since chlorophyll a is fluorescent. Some flowers also contain other more visibly fluorescent pigments like betaxanthins, increasing visibility to pollinators.
Plants have also been genetically modified to fluoresce. Fluorescing transgenes are used in plants as reporters of gene expression in vivo. Fluorescent antibodies are used to visualize protein localization in vitro. There are many types of fluorescent proteins (green fluorescent protein) that absorb and emit at different wavelengths. This enables the production of many differently labeled fluorescent molecules in a single plant.
Plant fluorescence is being found to be highly useful for the University of Florida and the NASA staff. These individuals are working together to learn more about the planet Mars. These scientists and engineers have chosen the Arabidopsis mustard plant, for many reasons, to go to Mars. Reporter genes have been added to this plant to glow for different environmental “stressors”. These stressors include temperature, drought, disease, metal content in the soil, peroxides, etc. Each stressor will glow at a different wavelength that will be monitored. By doing such an experiment more will be learned about the environment on Mars in order to modify plant life to be able to survive there.
