Light plays a very important role throughout the life-cycle of the plants starting from seed germination to fruit development, senescence and death. It plays a dual role in plants, acting as a signalling cue as well as energy source. Using the light energy from the sun, green plants fix atmospheric CO2 into sugars and release O2 through the process of photosynthesis thereby fulfilling the global food demand and aerobic respiratory needs. Moreover, the direction, duration, quality, and quantity of incident light beam plays crucial roles in various growth and development processes in plants.

Light is perceived by different kinds of receptors known as photoreceptors, which primarily capture the photons and respond to a wide spectrum of light from ultraviolet-B radiation (UV-B) to far-red light. So far, many photoreceptors have been identified and characterized in plants which include red/far-red sensing phytochromes (phyA to phyE), photoreceptors that recognize and initiate ultraviolet-A (UV-A) and blue light responses in plants called cryptochromes (cry1 and cry2), phototropins (phot1 and phot2), Zeitlupe (ZTL) protein family members, and UV-B photoreceptor called UVR8 (UV RESISTANCE LOCUS 8). These photoreceptors work in specific as well as overlapping wavelengths of light. The perception of light by different photoreceptors triggers diverse signal transduction events involving the downstream developmental regulators and transcription factors mediating the transcriptional as well as translational changes. Approximately one-third of the early expressed genes are differentially regulated by the light in plants.

Although the light plays an important role throughout the life of plants, the light regulated early developmental events are very crucial for plants growth and development as they impact the later vegetative and reproductive growth thereby affecting the yield and chances of survival on the advent of unfavourable conditions. Therefore, understanding of the early developmental events regulated by light is very important. In this special issue, we welcome original research articles, reviews, and perspectives that could significantly contribute to our understanding of early growth and development in plants, particularly in the context of light-mediated processes.

• Seed germination and seedling development which may include light as a trigger, photoreceptors and light perception, photomorphogenesis vs. skotomorphogenesis;

• Light quality and its effect on early stages of development, including photosynthesis and energy production (how light intensity, duration and quality affects photosynthesis), shade avoidance and adaptation to the changing light conditions;

• Light-mediated hormonal regulation;

• Circadian regulation of light-mediated early growth and development;

• Interplay between light signaling and stress responses, focusing on how light perception integrates with biotic and abiotic stress responses during seedling development;

• Chloroplast biogenesis and retrograde signaling.

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Light Regulation of Early Plant Growth and Development