Plant seedlings are sensitive to cultivation environment factors and highly susceptible to pathogenic infections under adverse conditions such as inappropriate light environment. In this study, five kinds of LED lighting sources with different red (R) and blue (B) light combinations were set up: R10B0, R7B3, R5B5, R2B8 and R0B10 (with R:B ratios of 10:0, 7:3, 5:5, 2:8 and 0:10, respectively) to explore their effects on tomato seedlings’ growth, AsA-GSH cycle, endogenous hormones, and resistance to Phytophthora infestans, providing a basis for factory seedling light-quality selection. The results showed that with the increase in the proportion of blue light in the composite light, the growth indicators, photosynthetic characteristic parameters and enzyme activities of tomato seedlings generally increased. The contents of AsA, reduced glutathione, and oxidized glutathione all reached the maximum under high-proportion blue-light treatments (R2B8 and R0B10). The high-blue-light groups (R2B8 and R0B10) had the highest AsA and glutathione contents. The red–blue combinations reduced inhibitory ABA and increased growth-promoting hormones (e.g., melatonin), while monochromatic light increased ABA to inhibit growth. After inoculation with P. infestans, the apoplastic glucose content was the highest under the red–blue-combined treatments (R5B5 and R2B8), while the total glucose content in leaves was the highest under the combined light R2B8 treatment. In conclusion, high-proportion blue-light treatment can greatly promote the photosynthetic process of tomato, enhance the AsA-GSH cycle, and achieve the best effect in improving the resistance of tomatoes to P. infestans. Given these, the optimal light environment setting was R:B = 2:8.

Elevated [CO₂] enhances light interception and carboxylation efficiency in plants. The combined effects of [CO₂] and photosynthetic photon flux density (PPFD) on stomatal morphology, leaf anatomy, and photosynthetic capacity in tomato seedlings remain unclear. This study subjected tomato seedlings (Solanum lycopersicum Mill. cv. Jingpeng No.1) to two [CO₂] (ambient [a[CO₂], 400 µmol·mol⁻¹] and enriched [e[CO₂], 800 µmol·mol⁻¹]) and three PPFD levels (L; low[Ll: 200 µmol·m⁻²·s⁻¹], moderate[Lm: 300 µmol·m⁻²·s⁻¹], and high[Lh: 400 µmol·m⁻²·s⁻¹]) to assess their interactive impacts. Results showed that e[CO₂] and increased PPFD synergistically improved relative growth rate and net assimilation rate while reducing specific leaf area and leaf area ratio. Notably, e[CO₂] decreased stomatal aperture (−13.81%) and density (−27.76%), whereas elevated PPFD promoted stomatal morphological adjustments. Additionally, Leaf thickness increased by 72.98% under e[CO₂], with Lm and Lh enhancing this by 10.79% and 41.50% compared to Ll. Furthermore, photosynthetic performance under e[CO₂] was further evidenced by improved chlorophyll fluorescence parameters (excluding non-photochemical quenching). While both e[CO₂] and increased PPFD Photosynthetic performance under e[CO₂] was further evidenced by improved chlorophyll fluorescence parameters (excluding non-photochemical quenching). Moreover, e[CO₂]-Lh treatment maximized total dry mass and seedling health index. Correlation analysis indicated that synergistic optimization of stomatal traits and leaf structure under a combination of e[CO₂] and increased PPFD enhanced light harvesting and CO₂ diffusion, thereby promoting carbon assimilation. These findings highlight e[CO₂]-Lh as an optimal strategy for tomato seedling growth, providing empirical guidance for precision CO₂ fertilization and light management in controlled cultivation.

Farming is an important development direction of agriculture in the future, which is affected by various environmental factors, among which light plays an important role, and it is essential for the growth of organisms in nature. LED technology can regulate the growth and development of vegetables by adjusting the spectral composition of light. In order to explore light quality formulation with the aim of improving the quality and yield of celery, we set up six experimental treatments: W (white light), R (red light), B (blue light), 3R1B (red light/blue light = 3:1), 4R1B (red light/blue light = 4:1), and 5R1B (red light/blue light = 5:1). The results indicated that the 3R1B and 4R1B illumination treatments were conducive to promoting the growth of celery, enhancing plant height and root length. Specifically, the 3R1B treatment optimized the nutritional quality of celery by increasing the levels of soluble protein, soluble sugar, and total flavonoids while reducing nitrate and cellulose contents and elevating the anthocyanin content in petioles. Additionally, both treatments enhanced the contents of Ca and Mg in celery leaves and petioles. Furthermore, the 3R1B treatment promoted the accumulation of photosynthetic pigments, upregulated the activities of ANS and FNS enzymes, and induced the upregulation of gene expression levels of FNS and ANS, thereby enhancing the nutritional value of celery.

Asparagus (Asparagus officinalis L.) is a highly nutritious vegetable rich in various bioactive compounds. Ensuring both yield improvement and quality preservation is a shared goal for producers and researchers. As novel green yield-enhancing technologies in facility agriculture, electrostatic fields and elevated CO₂ application hold significant potential. This study investigated the effects of the interaction between electrostatic fields and elevated CO₂ on the growth and physiological characteristics of asparagus. The results demonstrated that the combined treatment of electrostatic fields and elevated CO₂ significantly increased total yield, tender stem number, and single tender stem weight of asparagus, while also shortening the harvesting period and promoting rapid shoot growth. Additionally, the treatment markedly enhanced the total chlorophyll content in asparagus leaves, improving photosynthetic capacity. By boosting antioxidant enzyme activities (e.g., SOD, APX) and reducing malondialdehyde (MDA) levels, the treatment maintained the redox homeostasis of asparagus shoots, effectively mitigating oxidative damage. In terms of nutrient accumulation, the interaction between electrostatic fields and elevated CO₂ significantly promoted the synthesis and accumulation of key nutrients, including soluble sugars, reducing sugars, soluble proteins, total phenolics, total flavonoids, and ascorbic acid, thereby substantially improving the nutritional quality of asparagus. Comprehensive analysis using fuzzy membership functions revealed that the combined treatment of electrostatic fields and elevated CO₂ outperformed individual treatments in enhancing asparagus growth and physiological characteristics. This study provides important theoretical insights and technical support for the efficient and sustainable cultivation of asparagus in facility agriculture.

With the development of modern agricultural technology, plant factories have become an important way to achieve efficient and sustainable crop production. Accurate understanding of the light received by plants is the key to improving the light energy utilization efficiency of lamps and ensuring the benefits of plant factories. Ray tracing technology, as one of the key technologies in plant factories, is of great significance to analyze the growing light environment of vegetables. Spinach has high nutritional value and is loved by the public and is one of the main crops grown in plant factories. In this paper, LightTools, TracePro, and Ansys Lumerical FDTD Solution, which are currently mature light environment tracking software in the field of lighting, are selected as the research objects to investigate their performance in simulating the light environment of spinach leaf surfaces under different planting arrangements and different lamp source distances. The results show as follows: Under the rectangular planting arrangement, the leaves received more light, and the plants grew faster. Different planting arrangements of plants had little effect on the simulation effect of the same kind of software, but the simulation effect of the three kinds of software under the same planting arrangement was significantly different, and the difference between the simulated value and the measured value of TracePro was the least. Further, TracePro was used to trace and simulate the leaf surface light conditions of spinach under a rectangular planting arrangement at different lighting distances, and the simulation results showed that there was no significant difference between the software simulation value and the measured value, and the simulation accuracy was the highest when the distance from the light source was 30 cm. Therefore, TracePro software can accurately simulate the light intensity of spinach leaves during the growth process and is most suitable for monitoring the change of light environment of spinach growth in plant factories.

MicroRNAs play crucial roles in plant growth, development, and disease resistance. Transcriptome screening previously identified three late blight-responsive miRNAs (sly-miR172a, sly-miR156e, and sly-miR395a) in tomato whose biological functions remain uncharacterized. Here, CRISPR/Cas9 editing vectors targeting each miRNA were transformed into the tomato cultivar ‘Micro-Tom’. sly-miR395a showed the highest T0 editing efficiency (77.78%), followed by sly-miR172a (48.00%) and sly-miR156e (40.74%). T1 segregation ratios were approximately 1:12.3, 1:1.83, and 1:13 for the three targets. Stable T2 homozygous lines were obtained, and qRT-PCR confirmed average mature miRNA inhibition rates of 78.00%, 79.50%, and 87.50%. To assess editing specificity, genome-wide off-target prediction and Sanger sequencing of top high-risk loci were performed; no unintended indels were detected, confirming sgRNA specificity. Agronomic phenotyping revealed divergent developmental phenotypes: sly-miR172a knockout caused dwarfism, leaf senescence and reduced flower number; sly-miR156e mutants exhibited taller plants and increased floral production; sly-miR395a mutants had normal vegetative growth but fewer flowers. Resistance assays demonstrated distinct responses to Phytophthora infestans. Loss of sly-miR172a increased pathogen biomass by 1.6–2.3-fold and aggravated susceptibility, likely by de-repressing AP2/TOE to disrupt oxidative homeostasis. In contrast, both sly-miR156e and sly-miR395a negatively regulate late blight resistance. This could be because sly-miR156e knockout relieved the repression of SPL transcription factors, significantly restricting pathogen proliferation and lesion formation, and notably broke the canonical plant growth–defense trade-off to achieve simultaneous improvement of agronomic traits and disease resistance. sly-miR395a knockout enhanced tomato immunity potentially by activating sulfur metabolism-related pathways to accumulate defensive metabolites, with negligible adverse effects on vegetative growth. Nevertheless, this study has several limitations: the proposed regulatory cascades, including miRNA–AP2, miRNA–SPL, and miRNA–sulfur metabolism modules remain hypothetical without direct molecular validation of target interactions. Collectively, this study genetically validates that sly-miR172a, sly-miR156e, and sly-miR395a exert divergent functions in regulating tomato growth and immunity against late blight, providing valuable germplasm and gene resources for tomato disease-resistance breeding.