Encyclopedia Dubuque
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FIREFLIES: Difference between revisions
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[[Image:fireflies.gif|left|thumb|150px|Far more than a delight for summer nights, fireflies promise medical breakthroughs.]]FIREFLIES. Fireflies are a common summer evening bioluminescent insect that flashes fire-like sparks in the dark. During the summer of 1984, the Sigma Chemical Company of St. Louis sponsored the Sigma Firefly Scientists' Club in Dubuque. The family of Pat Francois collected a record for the year of 8,200 fireflies that earned them $82.00. Sigma paid one cent each for the insects with an additional ten-dollar bonus for every twenty-five thousand. | [[Image:fireflies.gif|left|thumb|150px|Far more than a delight for summer nights, fireflies promise medical breakthroughs.]]FIREFLIES. Fireflies are a common summer evening bioluminescent insect that flashes fire-like sparks in the dark. During the summer of 1984, the Sigma Chemical Company of St. Louis sponsored the Sigma Firefly Scientists' Club in Dubuque. The family of Pat Francois collected a record for the year of 8,200 fireflies that earned them $82.00. Sigma paid one cent each for the insects with an additional ten-dollar bonus for every twenty-five thousand. | ||
In 1986 scientists explained that they had used gene splicing techniques developed in the 1970s to introduce the gene that carries tje instructions to make the enzyme luciferase--the firefly;s 'lantern'--into a tobacco plane. From the individual tobacco cells containing the luciferase gene, scientists grew entire plants carrying the gene. The plants produced light when their luciferase, produced by the transplanted firefly gene, was combined with adenosine triphosphate and oxygen, which are in the plant, and an organic molecule called luciferin which is added. The implication of the study could lead plant breeders to obtain important information on how to help a plant increase its resistance to disease by linking the firefly gene to the gene for disease resistance and tracking it through several generations. (1) | |||
Unable to grow fireflies in captivity, companies like Sigma wanted the chemicals that give the insects their magic glow. Using compounds made from fireflies, doctors were able to diagnose congenital gaiactosemia in babies at birth. This condition imitates death by suffocation. Alerted parents can eliminate gaiactose from the baby's formula. | Unable to grow fireflies in captivity, companies like Sigma wanted the chemicals that give the insects their magic glow. Using compounds made from fireflies, doctors were able to diagnose congenital gaiactosemia in babies at birth. This condition imitates death by suffocation. Alerted parents can eliminate gaiactose from the baby's formula. | ||
Extracts from the firefly light can also be used to diagnose the possibility of some forms of mental retardation and search for the causes of cancer, muscular dystrophy and heart trouble. Luciferin and luciferase, chemicals found in firefly light, have even been used to manufacture a shark repellent. | Extracts from the firefly light can also be used to diagnose the possibility of some forms of mental retardation and search for the causes of cancer, muscular dystrophy and heart trouble. Luciferin and luciferase, chemicals found in firefly light, have even been used to manufacture a shark repellent. | ||
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Source: | |||
1. "Genetic Engineering Feat Produces Tobacco Leaf That Glows in the Dark," ''Telegraph Herald'', November 7, 1986, p. 2 | |||
[[Category: Insects]] | [[Category: Insects]] | ||
Revision as of 14:51, 28 November 2022
FIREFLIES. Fireflies are a common summer evening bioluminescent insect that flashes fire-like sparks in the dark. During the summer of 1984, the Sigma Chemical Company of St. Louis sponsored the Sigma Firefly Scientists' Club in Dubuque. The family of Pat Francois collected a record for the year of 8,200 fireflies that earned them $82.00. Sigma paid one cent each for the insects with an additional ten-dollar bonus for every twenty-five thousand.
In 1986 scientists explained that they had used gene splicing techniques developed in the 1970s to introduce the gene that carries tje instructions to make the enzyme luciferase--the firefly;s 'lantern'--into a tobacco plane. From the individual tobacco cells containing the luciferase gene, scientists grew entire plants carrying the gene. The plants produced light when their luciferase, produced by the transplanted firefly gene, was combined with adenosine triphosphate and oxygen, which are in the plant, and an organic molecule called luciferin which is added. The implication of the study could lead plant breeders to obtain important information on how to help a plant increase its resistance to disease by linking the firefly gene to the gene for disease resistance and tracking it through several generations. (1)
Unable to grow fireflies in captivity, companies like Sigma wanted the chemicals that give the insects their magic glow. Using compounds made from fireflies, doctors were able to diagnose congenital gaiactosemia in babies at birth. This condition imitates death by suffocation. Alerted parents can eliminate gaiactose from the baby's formula.
Extracts from the firefly light can also be used to diagnose the possibility of some forms of mental retardation and search for the causes of cancer, muscular dystrophy and heart trouble. Luciferin and luciferase, chemicals found in firefly light, have even been used to manufacture a shark repellent.
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Source:
1. "Genetic Engineering Feat Produces Tobacco Leaf That Glows in the Dark," Telegraph Herald, November 7, 1986, p. 2