Light means power: harnessing light spectrum and UV-B to enhance photosynthesis and rutin levels in microtomato plants

Iury Henrique Almeida Lima; Arthur Almeida Rodrigues; Erika Crispim Resende; Fábia Barbosa da Silva; Fernanda Dos Santos Farnese; Lucas de Jesus Silva; Márcio Rosa; Mateus Neri Oliveira Reis; Layara Alexandre Bessa; Thales Caetano de Oliveira; Ana Helena Januário; Fabiano Guimarães Silva

doi:10.3389/fpls.2023.1261174

Light means power: harnessing light spectrum and UV-B to enhance photosynthesis and rutin levels in microtomato plants

Front Plant Sci. 2023 Sep 4:14:1261174. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2023.1261174. eCollection 2023.

Affiliations

¹ Laboratory of Advanced Studies in Vertical Agriculture, Goiano Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology, Rio Verde, Brazil.
² Department of Biomolecules, Goiano Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology, Iporá, Brazil.
³ Laboratory of Plant Physiology, Goiano Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology, Rio Verde, Brazil.
⁴ PostGraduate Program in Plant Production, University of Rio Verde, Rio Verde, Brazil.
⁵ Biodiversity Metabolism and Genetics Laboratory, Goiano Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology, Rio Verde, Brazil.
⁶ Research Center for Exact and Technological Sciences, Franca University, Franca, Brazil.

Abstract

Urban vertical agriculture with lighting system can be an alternative green infrastructure to increase local food production irrespective of environmental and soil conditions. In this system, light quality control can improve the plant physiological performance, well as induce metabolic pathways that contribute to producing phenolic compounds important to human health. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the influence of RBW (red, blue and white) and monochromatic (red and blue; R and B, respectively) light associated or not with UV-B on photosynthetic performance and phenolic compound production in microtomato fruits cultivated via vertical agriculture. The experimental design adopted was completely randomized, with six replicates illuminated with 300 µmol·m^-2·s^-1 light intensities (RBW, RBW + UV, B, B + UV, R, and R + UV), 12 h photoperiod, and 3.7 W·m^-2 UV-B irradiation for 1 h daily for the physiological evaluations. Twenty-six days after the installation, gas exchange, chlorophyll a fluorescence and nocturnal breathing were evaluated. Fruits in different ripening stages (green, orange, and red) were collected from microtomato plants grown under with different light qualities, to evaluate the physiological performance. The identification and quantification of the phenolic compound rutin was also performed to investigate their metabolic response. This study identified that plants grown under B + UV had high photosynthetic rates (A=11.57 µmol·m^-2·s^-1) and the fruits at all maturation stages from plants grown under B and B + UV had high rutin content. Meanwhile, the activation of suppressive mechanisms was necessary in plants grown under R because of the high nocturnal respiration and unregulated quantum yield of the non-photochemical dissipation of the photosystem II. These results highlight the importance of selecting light wavelength for vegetable cultivation to produce fruits with a high content of specialized metabolites that influence color, flavor, and health promotion, which is of special interest to farmers using sustainable cropping systems.

Keywords: LEDs; Solanum lycopersicum; flavonoids; rutin; tomato; vertical agriculture.

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. The project was funded by the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES, Finance Code 001), The National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq, Grant # 408285/2021-4), and by the Financier of Studies and Projects/ the Research Support Foundation of the State of Goiás (FINEP/FAPEG Tecnova II Grant # 202010267000346).