To obtain new insights into the mechanisms of the positive effects of exogenous melatonin applications to cucumber seedlings during chilling, we investigated its role in regulating photosynthesis, the transcription level of csZat12 and the metabolism of polyamines (PAs) and of abscisic acid (ABA). The negative effects of chilling were clearly alleviated in cucumber seedlings by irrigation with 200 μM melatonin solution. This was evidenced by alleviation of the decline in net photosynthesis rate and also in electrolyte leakage in chilled plants. The reasons for this can be explained as follows. First, melatonin up-regulates CsZat12, an important stress-related gene. Second, melatonin increases the content of putrescine (Put) and spermidine (Spd) and stabilized spermine (Spm) by altering the activity of the PA metabolic enzymes. And, third, ABA is also involved in these effects as melatonin modulated the expression of the key ABA biosynthesis genes (CsNCED1 and CsNCED2) and also the key ABA catabolism genes (CsCYP707A1 and CsCYP707A2). This study provides new evidence suggesting melatonin mitigates chilling stress in cucumber by up-regulating the expression of CsZat12 and by modulating the metabolism of PAs and ABA.

During the autumn/spring “off” season, yield and quality of tomatoes are often affected by insufficient CO2 and low light in greenhouse production. Although tomato is one of the most widely cultivated vegetables, few studies have investigated the interactive effects of supplementary light and CO2 enrichment on its growth, photosynthesis, yield, and fruit quality in greenhouse production. This study investigates the effects of supplementary light (200 ± 20 μmol·m–2·s–1) and CO2 enrichment (increases to about 800 μmol·mol–1), independently and in combination, on these parameters in autumn through spring tomato production. Compared with tomatoes grown under ambient CO2 concentrations and no supplementary light (CaLn), supplementary light (CaLs) and supplementary light and CO2 enrichment (CeLs) significantly promoted growth and dry weight accumulation. Meanwhile, CO2 enrichment (CeLn) and CaLs significantly improved photosynthetic pigment contents and net photosynthetic (Pn) rates, whereas CeLs further improved these and also increased water use efficiency (WUE). CeLn, CaLs, and CeLs significantly increased single fruit weight by 16.2%, 28.9%, and 36.6%, and yield per plant by 19.0%, 35.6%, and 60.8%, respectively. The effect of supplementary light on these parameters was superior to that of CO2 enrichment. In addition, CaLs and CeLs improved nutritional quality significantly. Taken together, CeLs promoted the greatest yield, WUE, and fruit quality, suggesting it may be a worthwhile practice for off-season tomato cultivation.

Carbon dioxide concentration (CO2) and light intensity are known to play important roles in plant growth and carbon assimilation. Nevertheless, the underlying physiological mechanisms have not yet been fully explored. Tomato seedlings (Solanum lycopersicum Mill. cv. Jingpeng No. 1) were exposed to two levels of CO2 and three levels of light intensity and the effects on growth, leaf gas exchange and water use efficiency were investigated. Elevated CO2 and increased light intensity promoted growth, dry matter accumulation and pigment concentration and together the seedling health index. Elevated CO2 had no significant effect on leaf nitrogen content but did significantly upregulate Calvin cycle enzyme activity. Increased CO2 and light intensity promoted photosynthesis, both on a leaf‐area basis and on a chlorophyll basis. Increased CO2 also increased light‐saturated maximum photosynthetic rate, apparent quantum efficiency and carboxylation efficiency and, together with increased light intensity, it raised photosynthetic capacity. However, increased CO2 reduced transpiration and water consumption across different levels of light intensity, thus significantly increasing both leaf‐level and plant‐level water use efficiency. Among the range of treatments imposed, the combination of increased CO2 (800 µmol CO2 mol−1) and high light intensity (400 µmol m−2 s−1) resulted in optimal growth and carbon assimilation. We conclude that the combination of increased CO2 and increased light intensity worked synergistically to promote growth, photosynthetic capacity and water use efficiency by upregulation of pigment concentration, Calvin cycle enzyme activity, light energy use and CO2 fixation. Increased CO2 also lowered transpiration and hence water usage.

The role of a proposed micro-fog system in regulating greenhouse environments and enhancing tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) productivity during summer season was studied. Experiments were carried out in a multi-span glass greenhouse, which was divided into two identical compartments involving different environments: (1) without environment control and (2) with a micro-fog system operating when the air vapor pressure deficit (VPD) of greenhouse was higher than 0.5 KPa. The micro-fog system effectively alleviated heat stress and evaporative demand in the greenhouse during summer season. The physiologically favourable environment maintained by micro-fog treatment significantly enhanced elongation of leaf and stem, which contributed to a substantial elevation of final leaf area and shoot biomass. These improvements in physiological and morphological traits resulted in around 12.3% increase of marketable tomato yield per plant. Relative growth rate (RGR) of micro-fog treatment was also significantly higher than control plants, which was mainly determined by the substantial elevation in net assimilation rate (NAR), and to a lesser extent caused by leaf area ratio (LAR). Measurement of leaf gas exchange parameters also demonstrated that micro-fog treatment significantly enhanced leaf photosynthesis capacity. Taken together, manipulation of VPD in greenhouses by micro-fog systems effectively enhanced tomato growth and productivity via improving photosynthesis during summer season.

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Plants grown under highly variable natural light regimes differ strongly from plants grown under constant light (CL) regimes. Plant phenotype and adaptation responses are important for plant biomass and fitness. However, the underlying regulatory mechanisms are still poorly understood, particularly from a transcriptional perspective. To investigate the influence of different light regimes on tomato plants, three dynamic light (DL) regimes were designed, using a CL regime as control. Morphological, photosynthetic, and transcriptional differences after five weeks of treatment were compared. Leaf area, plant height, shoot /root weight, total chlorophyll content, photosynthetic rate, and stomatal conductance all significantly decreased in response to DL regimes. The biggest expression difference was found between the treatment with the highest light intensity at the middle of the day with a total of 1080 significantly up-/down-regulated genes. A total of 177 common differentially expressed genes were identified between DL and CL conditions. Finally, significant differences were observed in the levels of gene expression between DL and CL treatments in multiple pathways, predominantly of plant–pathogen interactions, plant hormone signal transductions, metabolites, and photosynthesis. These results expand the understanding of plant development and photosynthetic regulations under DL conditions by multiple pathways.

Stomatal opening/closure plays a key role in balancing a plant’s need to conserve water, while still allowing for the exchange of photosynthetic and respiratory gasses with the atmosphere. Stomatal opening/closure can be induced by differences in light quality but a detailed knowledge of the role of light in stomatal regulation in tomato is limited. In this study, we evaluated red and blue light-dependent stomatal opening processes in tomato seedlings and explored the mechanisms involved using different light-quality treatments. After 10 h of darkness, tomato seedlings were subjected to the following five treatments: monochromatic red light (R), 33% blue (2R1B), 50% blue (1R1B), 67% blue (1R2B), and monochromatic blue light (B) at 200 μmol m−2 s−1 light intensity. The highest stomatal conductance recorded were for 1R1B. Stomatal aperture under 1R1B showed a 92.8% increase after 15 min and a 28.6% increase after 30 min compared with under R alone. Meanwhile, the study shows that the expressions of the plasma membrane H+-ATPase in the leaf were regulated by different proportions of blue light. The results show that the expressions of HA1 and HA4 increased under 1R1B and 1R2B after 15 min of exposure compared with under R alone. Under 1R1B, our results also show net photosynthesis increased compared with R and B after longer treatments, which may be related to chloroplast ultrastructure, and leaf dry weight increased compared with under 1R2B or B alone, but there were no differences under the R and 2R1B light treatments.