Light as a Growth Regulator: Controlling Plant Biology with Narrow-bandwidth Solid-state Lighting Systems

By K. Folta, K. Childers. 2008

188 citations recorded by the source corpus.

In the mission of plant husbandry, light is a critical yet passive entity. The potential to actively implement dynamic lighting strategies to control plant growth and development holds great promise in the future of plant cultivation. In other words, rather than simply using a single stable light condition to maintain photosynthesis, might it be possible to continually adjust fluence rate, wavelength combinations, and photoperiods to actively manipulate plant morphology and production? Research over the past 100 years suggests that it is so, and today's solid-state, narrow bandwidth lighting platforms offer a unique opportunity to test this hypothesis. The goal of this report is to describe the potential use of light as a growth regulator. Here light-emitting diode technology is well suited for the application, because light quantity, quality, photoperiod, and combinations thereof can be controlled with great precision. Specific light combinations may be adjusted throughout the life of a plant to potentially optimize traits of interest such as synchronization of flowering, maintenance of vegetative growth programs, control of plant stature, or acceleration of juvenility. This report describes the plant photosensory networks and how they sense and respond to light. The connection between light and internal hormone stasis is explored and then extended to questions of designing specific regimes to control plant growth and development. The concept of static signaling states is presented as a means to tightly control plant habits, in essence, using light to stabilize plant signal transduction pathways and their associated outcomes. Finally, the concepts presented are applied to the diploid strawberry Fragaria vesca to demonstrate the usefulness of the approach. These experiments provide proof-of-concept and lay a foundation for further studies.

Subfields: Plant Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/a07993d95eb8306defb07d4e57e49ecf6a0bc277

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In Plant Science

1. R. Lopez
2. Sofia D Carvalho
3. Wesley C. Randall
4. G. Stutte
5. K. Folta

Citations in the corpus

• Light-emitting Diodes for Manipulating the Phytochrome Apparatus (2009, background): “As the price of LEDs has decreased, there has been a renewed interest in the use of LEDs as tools for photobiology as well (Folta and Childers, 2008).”
• Photoreceptors and Control of Horticultural Plant Traits (2015, background): “To complement that work, this review addresses the range of sensors that funnel photons of discrete energy into specific transduction cascades, resulting in changes in physiology and gene expression, building on the concept that light can be used as a growth regulator (Folta and Childers, 2008).”
• Effects of Different Light Sources on the Growth of Non-heading Chinese Cabbage (Brassica campestris L.) (2012, unknown): “Because of their potential to be implemented in dynamic lighting strategies to control plant growth, development, physiological responses and production, it is important to learn more about the influence of light quality on these processes (Folta and Childers, 2008; Lefsrud et al., 2008; Massa et al”
• Effects of LED light on the production of strawberry during cultivation in a plastic greenhouse and in a growth chamber (2015, background): “…effort to improve crop quality, there have been a ouple of previous trials to utilize LED light sources for the cultiation of crops in a growth chamber (Folta and Childers, 2008), or n a greenhouse covered with plastic or glass as well as in polytunels (Azad et al., 2011; Nestby and Trandem, 2013).”
• Comparison of Supplemental Lighting from High-pressure Sodium Lamps and Light-emitting Diodes during Bedding Plant Seedling Production (2014, background): “Light-emitting diodes offer the ability to test wavelength combinations to manipulate plant morphology and control plant stature (Folta and Childers, 2008; Stutte, 2009).”