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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Functional Plant Ecology
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpls.2024.1488649

Light quality regulates growth and flavonoid content in a widespread understorey medicinal species Scutellaria Baicalensis Georgi

Provisionally accepted
Jingran Ma Jingran Ma 1,2,3Zhang Jiaxing Zhang Jiaxing 1,2,3Lulu Xie Lulu Xie 2,3Ji Ye Ji Ye 2Li Zhou Li Zhou 2,3Dapao Yu Dapao Yu 2,3Qing-Wei Wang Qing-Wei Wang 2,3*
  • 1 Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing, China
  • 2 CAS Key Laboratory of Forest Ecology and Silviculture, Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang, China
  • 3 Changbaishan Xipo National Field Observation and Research Station for Forest Ecosystem, Baishan, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Light is not only essential for plant photosynthesis and growth, but also acts as a signal to regulate its secondary metabolism. Despite the influence of light quality on the yield and flavonoid compounds in commercial crops like vegetables is welldocumented, its role in regulating wild understorey species, particularly medicine plants whose flavonoid biosynthesis is mainly driven by multiple spectral regions of canopy sunlight, is less understood. To address it, we conducted a light-quality manipulation experiment on Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi, a widespread understorey medicinal species, with light-emitting diodes (LED). This study included eight light treatments: UV-A (UV-A radiation), CK (control group), Green (monochromatic green light), and different combinations of blue and red light (R0B4: monochromatic blue light; R1B3: 25% Red+75% Blue light; R1B1: 50% Red+50% Blue light; R3B1: 75% Red+25% Blue light; R4B0: monochromatic red light). Our results showed that light quality significantly drove plant morphology, biomass accumulation, and flavonoids biosynthesis in S. baicalensis. R0B4 treatment significantly promoted growth and flavonoids accumulation, including baicalin, and wogonoside concentrations. R4B0 treatment significantly increased plant height by 12.8%. In contrast, UV-A radiation and green light negatively impacted these parameters compared to CK treatment.Interestingly, plant biomass and flavonoid concentrations were lower in R1B3, R1B1 and R3B1 treatments compared to monochromatic blue or red light. It suggests that red light may antagonize blue light-stimulated growth and flavonoids accumulation, indicating a complex crosstalk between photoreceptors. These findings highlight the importance of blue light for optimizing the yield and quality of S. baicalensis in the understorey cultivation. It provides practice suggestion for the efficient management and sustainable development of understorey medicinal plants.

    Keywords: Blue light, Flavonoid biosynthesis, Light-emitting diodes (LED), secondary metabolism, medicinal plants

    Received: 30 Aug 2024; Accepted: 29 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Ma, Jiaxing, Xie, Ye, Zhou, Yu and Wang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Qing-Wei Wang, CAS Key Laboratory of Forest Ecology and Silviculture, Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang, China

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