Directed Development of Next-Generation Spectrally-Controlled Plant Growth: Combining genomics and precision LED lighting to modulate the growth and development of high-value crops

光对植物的生长和发育是必不可少的。它需要将二氧化碳转化为植物生长和发育所需的可用基质。目前，多光谱高压钠、金属卤化物或荧光生长灯代表了受控环境生长系统和/或温室的标准。不幸的是，这些光类型缺乏完全复制阳光的能力，例如黎明和黄昏等关键的日常事件，以及自然界中存在的、随时间、季节性和/或地理位置而变化的光光谱组成和强度的差异。此外，这些类型的光能源效率低，经常提供多余的光，这就要求植物将资源转移到消散多余的热量和辐射上。在气候变化时代，高效、节能的室内农产品种植对确保粮食安全将变得越来越重要。G2V Optics Inc.(加拿大埃德蒙顿)已将一项专有的可编程光谱发光二极管(LED)照明技术商业化，该技术可以精确地将光照射到受控环境生长系统中的植物，以调节生长和发育。这项应用的参与者之间已经建立了现有的合作伙伴关系，解决了LED照明配方和生长条件，大大促进了植物的生长和发育。此外，利用先进的分子技术和模式植物拟南芥，这种伙伴关系还揭示了这些有益生长表型的分子基础，提供了基因组和表型之间的牢固联系。这项提案旨在将这些发现转化为羽衣甘蓝和菠菜，这两种叶绿色超级食品对加拿大人的饮食健康非常重要。利用G2V Optics Inc.LED技术，结合一套先进的分子分析技术，我们将在受控环境生长系统中非侵入性地提高这些叶绿色超级食品的生长、生产力和营养含量。该项目将有助于为加拿大人提供更多负担得起的营养食品，这些食品可以不受气候变化引起的生长季节变化的影响，并以最小的碳足迹生产出来。

Light is essential to plant growth and development. It is required to convert CO2 into usable substrates for plant growth and development. Currently, multi-spectral high pressure sodium, metal halide or fluorescent grow-lights represent the standard for controlled environment growth systems and/or greenhouses. Unfortunately, these light types lack the ability to fully replicate sunlight, key daily events such as dawn and dusk as well as differences in light spectral composition and intensity that exist in nature and vary based on time-of-day, seasonality and/or geographical location. Moreover, these light types are energy inefficient, often providing excess light, which requires plants to divert resources to dissipating excess heat and radiation. In the era of climate change, effective and energy efficient indoor produce growth will become increasingly important to ensure food security. G2V Optics Inc (Edmonton, Canada) has commercialized a proprietary, programmable-spectra light emitting diode (LED) lighting technology that can precisely apply light to plants in controlled environment growth systems to modulate growth and development. An existing partnership already underway between the participants of this application has resolved LED light recipes and growth conditions that significantly enhance plant growth and development. Furthermore, using advanced molecular technologies and the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana, this partnership also uncovered the molecular underpinnings of these beneficial growth phenotypes, providing robust connections between genome and phenotype. This proposal aims to translate these findings into kale and spinach; two leafy-green superfoods of importance to the dietary health of Canadians. Using G2V Optics Inc. LED technology, in combination with a suite of advanced molecular analysis technologies, we will non-invasively increase the growth, productivity and nutritional content of these leafy-green superfoods in controlled environment growth systems. This project will contribute to providing Canadians more affordable and nutritious foods that could be produced independent of climate change induced growth season changes and with a minimal carbon footprint.