Light Interactions in Cell Culture Assays, You are performing a light assay to determine how light interacts with your cell culture. What are the four ways the light can interact with your sample?

Light Interactions in Cell Culture Assays

Light is an essential factor for life and can interact with cells in several ways. The four primary ways that light interacts with cell culture are through phototropism, phototaxis, photoperiodism, and photosynthesis. Phototropism is the process by which a cell responds to light intensity by altering its growth direction in response to the light source. For example, a cell will orient itself towards the light to maximize its exposure (Takagi et al., 2016). Phototaxis is the movement of a cell in response to a change in light intensity. Cells move towards or away from a light source depending on the intensity of the light (Shimizu et al., 2016).
Photoperiodism is the process by which a cell responds to changes in light duration and intensity. Cells are able to detect changes in day length and can alter their behaviour in response (Kusaba et al., 2019). Photosynthesis is the process by which cells use light energy to convert carbon dioxide and water into energy-rich molecules like glucose (Luo et al., 2021). Cont…