Light quality in plant tissue culture: does it matter?

The primary issues regarding the lack of protocol reproducibility among laboratories are environmental factors. Light (quantity and particularly quality), is one of those main factors, and studies seldom present the spectral quality of the light sources used. With the advent of light-emitting diode (LED) technology, impressive progress has been made in environmental controls and morphogenetic responses, as directed by the light used in the culture shelves. A wide array of LED lights with different spectra are currently available and light is important in large-scale propagation, especially liquid bioreactor systems. LED technology continues to evolve rapidly and has created additional possibilities. This laboratory has dedicated extensive efforts to implement photoautotrophic propagation, and light is a key component of the system. This review presents relevant topics on the influence of light in various plant tissue culture-based techniques.