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Will plants grown from seeds taken from these plants become bioluminescent, too?
by kseistrup 3y ago
Will plants grown from seeds taken from these plants become bioluminescent, too?
- ceejayoz 3y agoUnclear so far; the company hasn't said. Most petunia hybrids don't breed true. Petunias are readily propagated via cuttings, though.
- teraflop 3y agoNote that the website says: "Our Firefly Petunias are protected under patent, and as such, propagation and breeding are not permitted."
- yareal 3y agoGood luck. Home gardeners, at least, are absolutely going to propagate their own plants. Gift to friends, etc. Sure, this patent nonsense might protect against broad sales but it won't be much use in stopping their spread. And like, if someone plants these outside, you think the bees are checking patents?
- indigobunting 3y ago"you think the bees are checking patents?" Framable
- ceejayoz 3y agoThe next line being "These petunias are sold exclusively for personal use." As with copyrighted material, you get in trouble largely on redistribution, especially at large/commercial scale; I'm certain the company will be keeping a close eye on nurseries, eBay, Etsy, etc. Similar tags have been common practice with roses and other patented plants for decades.
- shellfishgene 3y agoFrom an article that was on the front page a while ago: "When asked whether Light Bio is worried about plant lovers sharing cuttings of the petunia with friends, Sarkisyan says that although the firm owns patents for the technology, it doesn’t plan to crack down aggressively on the behaviour. “The most positive way of dealing with it is to come up with new, better products,” he says."
- kseistrup 3y agoYeah, but that was not the question. I was merely interested in whether the genes responsible for the bioluminiscence will be inherited by the offspring. All sorts of funny things can happen when a variety (or cultivar, or whatever) is pollinated with the same variety. Does anyone know if the genes in question are dominant or recessive?
- Modified3019 3y agoThe seeds can result in glowing plants, but it’s not reliable enough to market or expect to have good results: https://old.reddit.com/r/ginkgobioworks/comments/1bdzzhw/anyone_received_their_firefly_petunias_yet/kvitmyw/?context=3 https://old.reddit.com/r/ginkgobioworks/comments/1bdzzhw/any... >The seeds do not yet breed true; that requires a much longer development timeline. Instead I’d suggest learning to propagate via cuttings, which petunias are one of the easiest plants to try with. Which they are fine with: https://old.reddit.com/r/solarpunk/comments/1aw14j3/genetically_engineered_plants_that_glow_in_the/krj8653/?context=3 https://old.reddit.com/r/solarpunk/comments/1aw14j3/genetica... >And no problem making new plants from seed or cutting. We just don’t want you to set up a new business (took us 10 years to make this plant, so yeah…).
- kseistrup 3y agoGood find. Thanks for the link.