Correlation Among Phenotypic Parameters Related to the Growth and Photosynthesis of Strawberry (Fragaria × ananassa Duch.) Grown Under Various Light Intensity Conditions.

Hyo Gil Choi

doi:10.3389/fpls.2021.647585

Abstract

The objective of this study was to investigate characteristics of phenotypic parameters such as physiology, yield, and fruit quality responses of strawberry (Fragaria × ananassa Duch.) to various light intensity conditions (VLICs), and to determine the correlations among these phenotypic parameters. Strawberry plants were cultivated in a smart greenhouse separated into four areas, three of which were completely shaded by curtains from 20:00 until 10:00 (3 hS), 12:00 (5 hS), and 14:00 (7 hS), respectively. The fourth area was a non-shaded control treatment (0 hS). The ambient light intensities during the experimental period for the 0, 3, 5, and 7 hS treatments were 1,285, 1,139, 770, and 364 mol⋅m–2, respectively. Strawberry plants grown under low light intensity conditions experienced decreases in photosynthetic rate, stomatal conductance, and sugar accumulation compared to the 0 hS. Petiole generation and fruit yield were also sharply decreased in proportion to the degree of decrease in light intensity. In contrast, photosynthetic pigment content was shown to increase under low light conditions. Organic acid contents (excluding acetic acid) and leaflet size did not change significantly under low light conditions compared to the 0 hS. Changes to light intensity are considered to induce changes to the phenotypic characteristics of strawberry plants to favor growth using the energy and carbon skeletons obtained through respiration and photosynthesis. In the 7 hS treatment, where light intensity was drastically reduced, NPQ, qP, and RFd values as chlorophyll a fluorescence parameters were significantly lowered, which could indicate their measurement as an important technique to check the stress response of plants grown in low light conditions.

Highlights

Various environmental factors are important for plant growth, such as light, temperature, carbon dioxide, and nutrients
Horticultural crop growth and harvest are greatly reduced in areas with low winter sunlight intensity
Strawberry plants were acclimated in the same environmental conditions for a period of 60 days after planted and the shading treatments were applied from December 23, 2018 until March 31, 2019

Summary

Introduction

Various environmental factors are important for plant growth, such as light, temperature, carbon dioxide, and nutrients. Decreasing hours of sunlight in winter can negatively affect plant growth. Most plants experience many fluctuations in sunlight from full sun to shade throughout the day Under these conditions, stomatal and photosynthetic responses vary dramatically related with growth status (Knapp and Smith, 1990). Horticultural crop growth and harvest are greatly reduced in areas with low winter sunlight intensity. Low light conditions during the cultivation of field crops and protected horticultural crops have been reported to reduce photosynthesis and plant growth, and cause yield loss and quality degradation (Yu et al, 2016; Gao et al, 2017; Zhu et al, 2017; Lu et al, 2019)

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