Production of Value-Added Plants

Abstract

For decades, humans have cultivated plants in open fields and green houses, with the aim of utilizing their primary and secondary metabolites. However, conditions in open fields and greenhouse environments are affected by weather conditions. Recently, due to research and development of plant factory with artificial lighting (PFAL), it has become possible to produce a target substance efficiently by artificially controlling environmental conditions. In this section, we introduce exam ples of research conducted using PFALs by changing various environmental condi tions, such as light and temperature, to increase production efficiency of useful secondary metabolites in vegetables, medicinal plants, and genetically modified plants. Various functional foods, such as vegetables, fruits, and crops, have been developed in recent years. Additionally, in PFALs, the application of various environmental conditions, such as light intensity, blue/red ratio, ultraviolet (UV) radiation, and low root-zone temperature, can increase the concentrations and content of functional and medicinal compounds. Therefore, PFALs are effective for stable cultivation with accumulation of functional compounds at high concen trations, and they can help in producing plants according to consumer needs (e.g., in terms of shape, color, and characteristics of flavors). Completely closed plant production systems (CCPPS) are considered key technologies and advanced facili ties for the efficient and stable production of plant-made pharmaceuticals (PMPs) by transgenic plants. To achieve stable and high-quality production of PMPs, optimal procedures of environmental control in CCPPS should be established for each transgenic plant. Nowadays, plants are considered smart cells, which can produce several secondary metabolites, including useful materials for humans. Owing to the recent development of high-throughput gene and metabolite analysis, and bioinfor matics technology, it is expected that these developments would facilitate rapid selection of environmental conditions suitable for controlling the concentration of target secondary metabolites.