title: Growth and stress response in Arabidopsis thaliana, Nicotiana benthamiana, Glycine max, Solanum tuberosum and Brassica napus cultivated under polychromatic LEDs.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The use of light emitting diodes (LEDs) brings several key advantages over existing illumination technologies for indoor plant cultivation. Among these are that LEDs have predicted lifetimes from 50-100.000 hours without significant drops in efficiency and energy consumption is much lower compared to traditional fluorescent tubes. Recent advances allow LEDs to be used with customized wavelengths for plant growth. However, most of these LED growth systems use mixtures of chips emitting in several narrow wavelengths and frequently they are not compatible with existing infrastructures. This study tested the growth of five different plant species under phosphor coated LED-chips fitted into a tube with a standard G13 base that provide continuous visible light illumination with enhanced blue and red light.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The LED system was characterized and compared with standard fluorescence tubes in the same cultivation room. Significant differences in heat generation between LEDs and fluorescent tubes were clearly demonstrated. Also, LED lights allowed for better control and stability of preset conditions. Physiological properties such as growth characteristics, biomass, and chlorophyll content were measured and the responses to pathogen assessed for five plant species (both the model plants Arabidopsis thaliana, Nicotiana bentamiana and crop species potato, oilseed rape and soybean) under the different illumination sources.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We showed that polychromatic LEDs provide light of sufficient quality and intensity for plant growth using less than 40% of the electricity required by the standard fluorescent lighting under test. The tested type of LED installation provides a simple upgrade pathway for existing infrastructure for indoor plant growth. Interestingly, individual plant species responded differently to the LED lights so it would be reasonable to test their utility to any particular application.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Pathological Plant Physiology, Institute of Experimental Botany AS CR, Rozvojová 313, 165 02 Prague 6, Czech Republic ; Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, University of Chemistry and Technology Prague, Technická 5, 166 28 Prague 6, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Janda
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Virology, Institute of Experimental Botany AS CR, Rozvojová 313, 165 02 Prague 6, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Oldřich
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Navrátil
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Stress Physiology, Institute of Experimental Botany AS CR, Rozvojová 313, 165 02 Prague 6, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Haisel
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Pathological Plant Physiology, Institute of Experimental Botany AS CR, Rozvojová 313, 165 02 Prague 6, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Barbora
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Jindřichová
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Virology, Institute of Experimental Botany AS CR, Rozvojová 313, 165 02 Prague 6, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Fousek
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Pathological Plant Physiology, Institute of Experimental Botany AS CR, Rozvojová 313, 165 02 Prague 6, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Lenka
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Burketová
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Virology, Institute of Experimental Botany AS CR, Rozvojová 313, 165 02 Prague 6, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Noemi
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Čeřovská
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Virology, Institute of Experimental Botany AS CR, Rozvojová 313, 165 02 Prague 6, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Tomáš
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Moravec
keywords: Arabidopsis thaliana; Fluorescent tubes; LED; Light; Nicotiana bentamiana; Oilseed rape; Plant physiology; Potato; Soybean