Quantification of Spectral Perception of Plants with Light Absorption of Photoreceptors

Abstract

Although plant responses to artificial lighting spectra often produce abnormal morphogenesis and reduced productivity, no quantification method to determine how plants perceive and respond to light has been available. Our objective in this study was to test whether a plant’s spectral perception can be quantified using the light absorption of its major photoreceptors, phytochrome, cryptochrome, and phototropin. We developed an artificial solar lamp and three different light sources, based on a high-pressure sodium lamp, a fluorescent lamp, and red and blue light-emitting diodes, whose absorption by photoreceptors was equal to that of the standard solar spectrum. Cucumber plants grown under the artificial solar and developed light sources showed normal photomorphogenesis and were indistinguishable from each other. Plants grown under unmodified commercial light sources had abnormal photomorphogenesis that made them short and small. The photosynthetic rate was higher under the unmodified light sources; however, dry masses were highest under the artificial solar and modified light sources, indicating that the cucumber plants are optimized to the solar spectrum. Our results clearly demonstrate that the spectral perceptions of plants can be quantified using the light absorption of their photoreceptors, not visual color or spectra. We expect that our findings will contribute to a better understanding of plant perceptions of and responses to light quality, and improve the productivity of plants cultivated under artificial light.

Biophysical methods used to generate tolerance to drought stress in seeds and plants: a review

“…Plants use different photoreceptors for each band of the electromagnetic spectrum, such as phytochromes for red and near red light and cryptochrome and phytochrome for the UV-B and UV-A ranges (Kang et al, 2020;Paik and Huq, 2019;Rodriguez-Calzada et al, 2019). Solar UV-A and UV-B radiation are natural stressors that generate bioactive compounds in plants such as carotenoids that protect chlorophyll (Chl) molecules from the excess energy produced by photosynthesis (Mariz -Ponte et al, 2018).…”