The Science Verification Test for NASA’s Advanced Plant Experiment-08 (APEX-08) testing Arabidopsis thaliana, a plant scientists routinely use for research, takes place inside the Veggie growth chamber at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Nov. 6, 2020. The test is part of the process for demonstrating readiness for space research ahead of its flight on SpaceX’s 23rd Commercial Resupply Services mission to the International Space Station. The APEX-08 study includes making genetic alterations that elicit a response in a group of organic compounds that modulate plant responses to environmental stress. Credits: NASA/Lucy Orozco
By Linda Herridge
NASA's John F. Kennedy Space Center
The Science Verification Test for NASA’s Advanced Plant Experiment-08 (APEX-08) takes place inside the Veggie growth chamber at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Nov. 6, 2020. Credits: NASA/Lucy Orozco
When astronauts embark on long-duration missions in the future, crews will
grow food to supplement what they can bring with them. More than 20 years of
continuously living and working in space aboard the International Space
Station has provided many opportunities for crews and
researchers to observe the challenges of growing plants in the stressful
conditions of microgravity.
One experiment on NASA SpaceX’s 23rd Commercial Resupply
Services mission to the space station will help determine
the effect of plant stress responses to the microgravity environment. The Advanced Plant
Experiment-08 (APEX-08) will grow Arabidopsis
thaliana, a plant scientists routinely use for research. The study includes
making genetic alterations that elicit a response in the pool of polyamines, a
group of organic compounds that modulate plant responses to environmental
stress.
“This experiment will test a range of genotypes of Arabidopsis plants
for modified abilities to respond to the microgravity environment," said
Dr. Patrick Masson, principal investigator, University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“We altered a polyamine metabolic pathway previously implicated in plant stress
responses, and we’ll look for variations in growth and alterations in gene expression
profiles between genotypes.”
Pools of polyamines in plants, particularly a major group called
putrescines, could be manipulated in space and on the ground to reduce stress
reactions. Masson, along with co-investigator Dr. Shih-Heng Su, selected six
distinct genotypes of Arabidopsis plants for the study.
“The lines used in the APEX-08 experiment were modified to affect the
ability of the plants to either synthesize or degrade putrescine,” said Su,
associate scientist with the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “By regulating
the expression level of certain genes, we can change the putrescine within the
plants, which may change the ability of plants to respond differently to
stress.”
Inside a laboratory at Kennedy’s Space Station Processing Facility (SSPF),
the payload development team, including NASA researchers, the principal investigators,
and contractors, placed the Arabidopsis seeds in an agar
medium on Petri plates for the journey to the orbiting laboratory.
Upon delivery to the space station, crewmembers will install the plates in
the Veggie plant growth
facility and activate them by exposing them to Veggie LED lights, which will
help them germinate. Crew members will photograph the seedlings at the end of
the growth period for biometric analysis.
At the end of nine days, the plants will be harvested and preserved with a
chemical fixative before they are placed in cold stowage for their return
journey to Earth. The plants will be delivered to the investigators for
gene-expression analysis.
Inside the SSPF, a team will initiate a ground control experiment that
mimics space station conditions about 52 hours after astronauts initiate the
experiment on the station.
“By comparing the samples from the space station with the ground experiment
results, we should have a good idea of how altering the pool of putrescine and
derived compounds within the seedlings can potentially affect plant responses
to the stress encountered in microgravity,” Masson said.
The results of the experiment will be sent to NASA’s GeneLab database for other
researchers to use and compare with their studies.
As NASA project manager for APEX-08, Lucy Orozco coordinated the APEX-08
activities including scheduling, pre-flight tests, and operation support to
ensure the mission success.
“It’s important to understand the fundamental biological factors that
affect plants and how they grow in microgravity,” Orozco said. “By identifying
effective solutions for sustainable plant growth, NASA will be able to support
human deep space exploration from the Moon to Mars and beyond.”
For more information about space station research, visit https://nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research.
Source: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-tests-ways-to-reduce-stress-in-plants-growing-in-space
No comments:
Post a Comment