부산대학교 도서관

The Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP) is efficiently expressed in plant cells and its use as a flower fluorescent dye is appealing. However, the generation of fluorescent flowers has remained as yet elusive. In this work we demonstrate the generation of green-fluorescent flowers. Non-fluorescent GFP-transgenic flowers were analysed by Western blot and spectrofluorimetry, and were demonstrated to efficiently express GFP. This indicated that the lack of GFP fluorescence could be due to opacity to the exciting light. Thus, flowers that are largely transparent to UV, Eustoma grandiflorum (Lisianthus), or that present a transparent petal cuticle, Osteospermum ecklonis, were selected for gfp transformation. Strikingly, the transformed Eustoma flowers fluoresced brightly upon illumination with UV light. GFP-transgenic Osteospermum flowers also appeared distinctly green upon UV illumination. GFP was expressed in comparable amounts by the fluorescent Osteospermum and by the non-fluorescent Limonium petals, confirming that an efficient excitation of GFP fluorescence is a limiting factor in its detection. These results demonstrate the feasibility of using GFP as a fluorescent dye for flower petals. Chromophores excited at longer, more deeply penetrating wavelengths, e.g. DsRed, may extend the use this technology also to flowers opaque to UV light. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]