The Power of Colored Light
A group of researchers revealed that using colored light could lead to advances in the development, flowering, and adaption to environment for certain plants. The team used optogenetics, which is defined as using light control biological processes, specifically for plant life. Since plants respond to light as they grow, optogenetics was not working in the past. The genetic switches would be constantly activated. However, the team came up with a solution that allows for different cellular processes to be controlled by colored light. Basically this colored light is turning certain genes on and off. For example, red light can be used to turn on gene expression at a certain time. When they want the gene to "turn off" they will put on white light. This process of switching the colors back and forth can happen as much as possible.
Rather than using chemicals or drugs that are ultimately hurting the plant and the environment, the optogenetics is a great advancement to be used. Ultimately, using colored light can increase plant yields and could potentially improve the plants defense against pathogens.
Second Link: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41592-020-0868-y
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