Priyanka Govindegowda, Singiri Jeevan R, Novoplansky Nurit, Grafi Gideon
French Associates Institute for Agriculture and Biotechnology of Drylands, Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Midreshet Ben Gurion, Israel.
Plant Cell Environ. 2025 May;48(5):3038-3051. doi: 10.1111/pce.15333. Epub 2024 Dec 16.
Lunar farming, often regarded as a myth, is regularly practiced in many places around the world (e.g., India) where framers organized their agricultural activities according to moon phases. Early and recent work showed that exposure to moonlight affects the life cycle of plants, from seed germination and vegetative growth to fruit maturation and dispersal. Here we addressed the long-term effect of short exposure to full moonlight (FML) on cellular activities in Brassica juncea by analyzing protein and metabolite profiles immediately after 3-night-exposure (3NE) or 7 and 15 days after exposure (DAE) to FML. This study shows an increase in nuclear size following 3NE to FML, which was accompanied by changes in protein and metabolite profiles. We identified significant alterations in protein and metabolite profiles between FML and dark-treated plants in conjunction with developmental stages, which persisted long after exposure to FML. Most notable are the changes in composition of metabolite interconversion enzymes (MIEs) at various developmental stages which were intensified in FML-treated plants. Changes in MIEs were accompanied by significant alterations in metabolite composition and level, particularly at 15DAE, including branched-chain amino acids (e.g., valine, leucine), multiple sugars (raffinose, glucose, sucrose) as well as the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle intermediates malic acid and citric acid. Thus, our results show that short-term exposure to FML triggers a developmental switch resulting in a long-term impact on plant performance that brings about an increase in cell activities and consequently enhanced growth. Our results call for meticulous research on this lunar phenomenon and its potential to enhance crop plant growth and development.
阴历农耕，通常被视为一种神话，但在世界许多地方（如印度）却经常被践行，在这些地方，农民们根据月相来组织他们的农业活动。早期和近期的研究表明，暴露在月光下会影响植物的生命周期，从种子萌发、营养生长到果实成熟和传播。在这里，我们通过分析在暴露于满月月光（FML）3晚后（3NE）或暴露后7天和15天（DAE）立即分析蛋白质和代谢物谱，来研究短期暴露于满月月光对芥菜细胞活动的长期影响。这项研究表明，暴露于FML 3晚后细胞核大小增加，同时伴随着蛋白质和代谢物谱的变化。我们确定了FML处理和黑暗处理的植物之间蛋白质和代谢物谱的显著变化，这些变化与发育阶段相关，并且在暴露于FML后很长时间仍然存在。最值得注意的是，在不同发育阶段，代谢物互变酶（MIEs）的组成发生了变化，在FML处理的植物中这种变化更加明显。MIEs的变化伴随着代谢物组成和水平的显著改变，特别是在15 DAE时，包括支链氨基酸（如缬氨酸、亮氨酸）、多种糖类（棉子糖、葡萄糖、蔗糖）以及三羧酸（TCA）循环中间体苹果酸和柠檬酸。因此，我们的结果表明，短期暴露于FML会引发发育转变，从而对植物性能产生长期影响，导致细胞活动增加，进而促进生长。我们的研究结果呼吁对这种阴历现象及其促进作物生长发育的潜力进行细致的研究。
