photoinhibition in horticultural crops: an overview of the effect of light quality and signaling in the underlying photoprotection mechanisms

Acclimation to the privileged lighting environment is an important step for the survival of newly developed horticultural plants such as transplants, tissue culture-generated plants, and mature plants when a change occurs in light intensity during the growth period or even during one full day. capturing excess light energy without an antecedent to acclimation imposes photooxidative cellular damage and photoinhibition in plants. since carbon utilization may not keep pace with reductive energy production, it renders electron acceptors in the electron transfer chain oversaturated. however, plants are usually equipped with photoprotective mechanisms to attenuate the detrimental effects of excess light energy on the photosynthesis apparatus. in this review, we discussed how different controlled environment horticulture (ceh) systems are embedded with immense opportunities for improving yield and quality. current understandings of the direct and indirect functional roles of light spectra are discussed in the context of photoinhibition, photoprotection, and their regulatory mechanisms.