Crop Physiology under LED Lighting

Over the last decade there have been rapid developments in LED technology, resulting in applications of LED lighting in research facilities (greenhouses, climate chambers) as well as commercial greenhouses and vertical farms. LEDs open up many opportunities to control growth, development, and quality of plants. This has also given a boost to both basic and applied research on photobiology. Light, ranging from UV to far red, affects many different processes like photosynthesis, morphogenesis, development, biosynthesis and break-down of metabolites, and plant-water relations. Many insights are being discovered with respect to regulation of the physiological and molecular regulation of plant processes in relation to intensity, spectrum, direction, photoperiod, and timing of light.

This Research Topic aims to gather new information about the physiological and molecular responses of plants to LED lighting. The research can be at the level of genes and cells up to whole crop level. We welcome Original Research, Review, Mini Review, Methods, Opinions and Perspectives papers, related to how LED affects, among other things:
• Signaling by photoreceptors
• Plant growth and development
• Quality of plant products at harvest and post harvest
• Morphogenesis
• Photosynthesis
• Biosynthesis of secondary metabolites relevant for crop development and/or quality
• Flower induction
• Plant-water relations
• Light interception
• Interaction of responses to light with other growth conditions
• Genotype x environment interaction

Please note that descriptive studies that report responses of growth, yield, or quality to a (light) treatment will not be considered if they do not progress physiological understanding of these responses.