London - Scientists have pioneered a genetically modified "super potato" that glows when it needs water, the head of the project said yesterday.
Researchers at Edinburgh University injected potato plants with a fluorescence gene borrowed from the luminous jellyfish aequorea victoria, which causes their leaves to glow green when dehydrated.
The potatoes are not intended to be eaten but would act as "sentinels", planted beside the commercial crop to alert a farmer that the rest of his field needed watering.
