The Effects of LED Lighting on Crop Growth, Quality, and Yield

A special issue of Agriculture (ISSN 2077-0472). This special issue belongs to the section "Crop Production".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 25 October 2025 | Viewed by 490

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Institute of Urban Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Chengdu 610213, China
Interests: photobiology; CO2 enrichment; LED supplementary lighting; water use efficiency; plasma membrane intrinsic proteins (PIPs); stomatal movement
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National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University (NIE/NTU), 1 Nanyang Walk, Singapore 637 616, Singapore
Interests: photosynthesis; plant physiology; plant environmental stresses; plant abiotic stress; shoot-root communication
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Light is a critical environmental factor influencing plant growth, development, and metabolic processes, and traditional agricultural lighting systems, such as high-pressure sodium lamps and fluorescent lights, have long been utilized to supplement lighting in controlled-environment agriculture in greenhouses and vertical farms. However, these systems suffer from inefficiencies, including high energy consumption, limited spectral adjustability, and excessive heat emission, which can negatively impact plant physiology and resource sustainability. In recent decades, light-emitting diode (LED) technology has emerged as a transformative solution, offering precise spectral control, energy efficiency, and adaptability to diverse crop requirements. By attracting cutting-edge research, this Special Issue aims to advance the scientific understanding and practical implementation of LED lighting, foster sustainable and resilient agricultural systems globally, optimize agricultural productivity and crop quality, and address both fundamental research and practical applications.

This Special Issue invites contributions including, but not limited to, the following aspects:

  1. Mechanistic insights into plant responses to LED spectra (e.g., gene expression, hormonal regulation).
  2. Field-to-factory applications, including vertical farming, greenhouse supplementation, and urban agriculture.
  3. Innovations in smart lighting systems, AI-driven spectral optimization, and lifecycle assessments.
  4. Socioeconomic analyses of LED adoption in diverse agricultural contexts.

Prof. Dr. Qingming Li
Dr. Jie He
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • LED
  • light formula
  • light quality
  • light quantity
  • photoperiod
  • photobiology
  • growth
  • quality
  • yield

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

18 pages, 2521 KiB  
Article
Transcriptomics and Metabolomics Reveal the Dwarfing Mechanism of Pepper Plants Under Ultraviolet Radiation
by Zejin Zhang, Zhengnan Yan, Xiangyu Ding, Haoxu Shen, Qi Liu, Jinxiu Song, Ying Liang, Na Lu and Li Tang
Agriculture 2025, 15(14), 1535; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture15141535 - 16 Jul 2025
Viewed by 163
Abstract
As a globally significant economic crop, pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) plants display excessive plant height (etiolation) in greenhouse production under an undesirable environment, leading to lodging-prone plants with reduced stress resistance. In the present study, we provided supplementary ultraviolet-B (UV-B, 280–315 nm) [...] Read more.
As a globally significant economic crop, pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) plants display excessive plant height (etiolation) in greenhouse production under an undesirable environment, leading to lodging-prone plants with reduced stress resistance. In the present study, we provided supplementary ultraviolet-B (UV-B, 280–315 nm) light to pepper plants grown in a greenhouse to assess the influences of UV-B on pepper growth, with an emphasis on the molecular mechanisms mediated through the gibberellin (GA) signaling pathway. The results indicated that UV-B significantly decreased the plant height and the fresh weight of pepper plants. However, no significant differences were observed in the chlorophyll content of pepper plants grown under natural light and supplementary UV-B radiation. The results of the transcriptomic and metabolomic analyses indicated that differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were significantly enriched in plant hormone signal transduction and that UV radiation altered the gibberellin synthesis pathway of pepper plants. Specifically, the GA3 content of the pepper plants grown with UV-B radiation decreased by 39.1% compared with those grown without supplementary UV-B radiation; however, the opposite trend was observed in GA34, GA7, and GA51 contents. In conclusion, UV-B exposure significantly reduced plant height, a phenotypic response mechanistically linked to an alteration in GA homeostasis, which may be caused by a decrease in GA3 content. Our study elucidated the interplay between UV-B and gibberellin biosynthesis in pepper morphogenesis, offering a theoretical rationale for developing UV-B photoregulation technologies as alternatives to chemical growth inhibitors. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Effects of LED Lighting on Crop Growth, Quality, and Yield)
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