Electric ballast by germs

We usually use electric bulbs such as incandescent bulbs, fluorescent bulbs, halogen lamps, neon lights, LEDs ... but there is a new kind of electric bulb, which is a bioelectric balloon, glowing by bacteria.

Three young researchers are students from the University of Wisconsin (USA) hope this kind of bioelectric balloon can be widely used in the market.

Picture 1 of Electric ballast by germs
Bioelectric ballast developed by Zaiken's team

Michael Zaiken, one of the authors of the work, said: " Bioelectric ballasts are essentially a dual ecosystem. It contains many different micro-organisms, each of which recycles nutrients from other species to survive. '

The most important component of this dual ecosystem is the genetically modified Escherichia coli (E.coli), a bacterium commonly found in human gut and some animals. Usually, they do not glow in the dark.

Zaiken and the other two members inserted a DNA loop from luminescence, fireflies, squid, or some other luminescent species into E. coli so they could glow.

One of the challenges now is to find a way to keep DNA encoding bioluminescence in E.coli as existing as replicating cells. 'We are currently working to keep the bioluminescence gene stable for a long time , ' ' Zaiken said.

This bioelectric ballast does not need power supply and can glow for months. It has not yet appeared on the market.