Improving "color rendering" of LED lighting for the growth of lettuce

Light plays a vital role on the growth and development of plant. On the base of white light with high color rendering to the benefit of human survival and life, we proposed to improve “color rendering” of LED lighting for accelerating the growth of lettuce. Seven spectral LED lights were adopted to irradiate the lettuces under 150 μmol·m−2·s−1 for a 16 hd−1 photoperiod. The leaf area and number profiles, plant biomass, and photosynthetic rate under the as-prepared LED light treatments were investigated. We let the absorption spectrum of fresh leaf be the emission spectrum of ideal light and then evaluate the “color rendering” of as-prepared LED lights by the Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient and CIE chromaticity coordinates. Under the irradiation of red-yellow-blue light with high correlation coefficient of 0.587, the dry weights and leaf growth rate are 2-3 times as high as the sharp red-blue light. The optimized LED light for lettuce growth can be presumed to be limited to the angle (about 75°) between the vectors passed through the ideal light in the CIE chromaticity coordinates. These findings open up a new idea to assess and find the optimized LED light for plant growth

Metabolic Reprogramming in Leaf Lettuce Grown Under Different Light Quality and Intensity Conditions Using Narrow-Band LEDs

Light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are an artificial light source used in closed-type plant factories and provide a promising solution for a year-round supply of green leafy vegetables, such as lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.). Obtaining high-quality seedlings using controlled irradiation from LEDs is critical, as the seedling health affects the growth and yield of leaf lettuce after transplantation. Because key molecular pathways underlying plant responses to a specific light quality and intensity remain poorly characterised, we used a multi-omics-based approach to evaluate the metabolic and transcriptional reprogramming of leaf lettuce seedlings grown under narrow-band LED lighting. Four types of monochromatic LEDs (one blue, two green and one red) and white fluorescent light (control) were used at low and high intensities (100 and 300 μmol·m-2·s-1, respectively). Multi-platform mass spectrometry-based metabolomics and RNA-Seq were used to determine changes in the metabolome and transcriptome of lettuce plants in response to different light qualities and intensities. Metabolic pathway analysis revealed distinct regulatory mechanisms involved in flavonoid and phenylpropanoid biosynthetic pathways under blue and green wavelengths. Taken together, these data suggest that the energy transmitted by green light is effective in creating a balance between biomass production and the production of secondary metabolites involved in plant defence