University of Tennessee researchers explore the future of houseplants as aesthetically pleasing and functional sirens of home health. The idea is to genetically engineer house plants to serve as subtle alarms that something is amiss in our home and office environments.
This is not the first time that plants have been proposed as biosensors. The authors point out that to date several environmentally relevant phytosensors have been designed by using biotechnology.
In fact, what was once known as genetic engineering has grown into a whole field of study called synthetic biology, which is the design and construction of new biological entities or systems.
Synthetic biology is a valuable tool for agricultural production, allowing farmers to grow plants designed to resist drought or certain pests, What is new, is the concept of applying synthetic biology to houseplants beyond aesthetic reasons.
Through the tools of synthetic biology it’s possible to engineer houseplants that can serve as architectural design elements that are both pleasing to our senses and that function as early sensors of environmental agents that could harm our health, like mold, radon gas or high concentrations of volatile organic compounds.
The plant biosensors could be designed to react to harmful agents in any number of ways, such as gradually changing the color of their foliage or through the use of fluorescence.
News Source: https://ag.tennessee.edu/news/Pages/NR-2018-07-SciencePerspectiveHouseplants.aspx
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