Role of Light in the Growth and Development of Plants

A special issue of Cells (ISSN 2073-4409). This special issue belongs to the section "Plant, Algae and Fungi Cell Biology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (10 August 2023) | Viewed by 5592

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
1. Department of Genetics, Faculty of Science and Informatics, University of Szeged, H-6726 Szeged, Hungary
2. Institute of Plant Biology, Biological Research Centre, H-6726 Szeged, Hungary
Interests: plants; Arabidopsis thaliana; light-regulated gene expression; photoreceptors; photomorphogenesis; circadian clock; clock-regulated gene expression; flowering time; photoperiodism
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Plants are fascinating creatures, and were able to colonize our planet despite the fact that they are unable to move actively. As sessile organisms, plants adopted several highly redundant and fail-safe signalling systems to manage constant adjustment of their metabolism, growth and development to their ever-changing environment.

Circadian clocks are genetic oscillators contributing to the fitness of plants by scheduling a wide range of molecular and physiological processes to the most appropriate times of the day. In order to keep good time, the clock needs to be synchronised to the day/night cycles on a daily basis. The most effective synchronising environmental signal is light, perceived by photoreceptors that relay signal to the circadian oscillator to reset its phase. On the other hand, clock-controlled output rhythms can functionally interact with photoreceptor-mediated light-signalling cascades creating a basis for day length measurement, which is then utilized to regulate complex vital seasonal processes such as reproduction.

With this Special Issue collection of papers, we would like to shed light on the complicated and multi-level interactions between light and clock regulation in plants. Accordingly, we are calling for excellent papers focusing on (i) plant photoreceptors and signalling mechanisms; (ii) the structure and function of the circadian oscillator; (iii) photoperiodism, including day length control of flowering; and (iv) the processes linking the above regulatory units.  

I am convinced that we can put together an exciting collection of papers providing a comprehensive and current illustration of the state-of-art of our field. 

Best regards,
Dr. László Kozma-Bognár
Guest Editor

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

16 pages, 2510 KiB  
Article
Role of Phytochromes in Red Light-Regulated Alternative Splicing in Arabidopsis thaliana: Impactful but Not Indispensable
by Daniel Alejandro Careno, Constanza Helena Assaf, Eline Dieuwerke Catharina Eggermont, Micaela Canelo, Pablo Diego Cerdán and Marcelo Javier Yanovsky
Cells 2023, 12(20), 2447; https://doi.org/10.3390/cells12202447 - 13 Oct 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1831
Abstract
Light is both the main source of energy and a key environmental signal for plants. It regulates not only gene expression but also the tightly related processes of splicing and alternative splicing (AS). Two main pathways have been proposed to link light sensing [...] Read more.
Light is both the main source of energy and a key environmental signal for plants. It regulates not only gene expression but also the tightly related processes of splicing and alternative splicing (AS). Two main pathways have been proposed to link light sensing with the splicing machinery. One occurs through a photosynthesis-related signal, and the other is mediated by photosensory proteins, such as red light-sensing phytochromes. Here, we evaluated the relative contribution of each of these pathways by performing a transcriptome-wide analysis of light regulation of AS in plants that do not express any functional phytochrome (phyQ). We found that an acute 2-h red-light pulse in the middle of the night induces changes in the splicing patterns of 483 genes in wild-type plants. Approximately 30% of these genes also showed strong light regulation of splicing patterns in phyQ mutant plants, revealing that phytochromes are important but not essential for the regulation of AS by R light. We then performed a meta-analysis of related transcriptomic datasets and found that different light regulatory pathways can have overlapping targets in terms of AS regulation. All the evidence suggests that AS is regulated simultaneously by various light signaling pathways, and the relative contribution of each pathway is highly dependent on the plant developmental stage. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Role of Light in the Growth and Development of Plants)
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17 pages, 2573 KiB  
Article
Effects of Different Light Wavelengths on Fruit Quality and Gene Expression of Anthocyanin Biosynthesis in Blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosm)
by Zhiwen Wei, Haiyan Yang, Jie Shi, Yongkang Duan, Wenlong Wu, Lianfei Lyu and Weilin Li
Cells 2023, 12(9), 1225; https://doi.org/10.3390/cells12091225 - 23 Apr 2023
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 3074
Abstract
Different light wavelengths display diverse effects on fruit quality formation and anthocyanin biosynthesis. Blueberry is a kind of fruit rich in anthocyanin with important economic and nutritional values. This study explored the effects of different light wavelengths (white (W), red (R), blue (B) [...] Read more.
Different light wavelengths display diverse effects on fruit quality formation and anthocyanin biosynthesis. Blueberry is a kind of fruit rich in anthocyanin with important economic and nutritional values. This study explored the effects of different light wavelengths (white (W), red (R), blue (B) and yellow (Y)) on fruit quality and gene expression of anthocyanin biosynthesis in blueberry. We found that the B and W treatments attained the maximum values of fruit width, fruit height and fruit weight in blueberry fruits. The R treatment attained the maximum activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and peroxidase (POD), and the Y treatment displayed the maximum contents of ascorbic acid (AsA), glutathione (GSH) and total phenol in fruits, thus improving blueberry-fruit antioxidant capacity. Interestingly, there were differences in the solidity–acid ratio of fruit under different light-wavelength treatments. Moreover, blue light could significantly improve the expression levels of anthocyanin biosynthesis genes and anthocyanin content in fruits. Correlation and principal component analysis showed that total acid content and antioxidant enzymes were significantly negatively correlated with anthocyanin content in blueberry fruits. These results provide new insights for the application of light wavelength to improve blueberry fruit quality and anthocyanin content. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Role of Light in the Growth and Development of Plants)
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