10 Jan New discovery on how plants detect light and grow could result in more resilient crops
Photoreceptors help seedlings detect when they have reached ample sunlight, when to stop elongating their stems and when to begin photosynthesis to produce energy. Photo by ArtRachen01/iStock
University of Wisconsin–Madison researchers have discovered where an important photoreceptor acts within plant stems, and the finding could help growers improve the success rate of crops like soybeans.
Published in the journal Current Biology, the research brings new understanding to how seedlings detect light in their environment and inform their growth strategy.
Researchers have known that photoreceptors help seedlings detect when they have reached ample sunlight, when to stop elongating their stems and when to begin photosynthesis to produce energy. But until now, they weren’t sure where in the seedling these photoreceptors acted and had to look at the entire plant to study the resulting phenomena.
“For the first time, we realized that the effect of these photoreceptors is not everywhere along the stem and that different photoreceptors control different regions of the stem,” explains Edgar Spalding, a professor emeritus of botany at UW–Madison.
Spalding, along with doctoral student Julian Bustamante and data scientist Nathan Miller, isolated the effects of certain photoreceptors through genetic manipulation editing and photographed the growth of tiny sprouting seedlings with highly sensitive cameras. They analyzed the photos with machine learning and the UW’s high-throughput computing resources to determine where each photoreceptor controlled growth on the stem. Stand establishment — the healthy early development of a plant taking root in soil — is a critical indicator for crop success. Understanding precisely how photoreceptors contribute to this vulnerable period of growth is of great interest to farmers and researchers alike.