Ariel M. Hughes, Joshua P. Vandenbrink, John Z. Kiss
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引用次数: 0
Abstract
The future of space exploration will be contingent upon the use of plants in bioregenerative life support systems. Unfortunately, the microgravity of space can cause stress in plants, which can reduce growth. The Random Positioning Machine, RPM, is a device designed to provide an analogue for the effects of microgravity on Earth by rotating specimens in three dimensions. In this study, we compare the results from experiments conducted on the International Space Station with those conducted using the RPM (in the 3D clinostat mode) on the ground. Seedlings of Arabidopsis thaliana wildtype and phytochrome mutants were grown in true microgravity and in the omnidirectional gravity on a rotating RPM on the ground. We found that the RPM treatment caused less stress in the seedlings than did true microgravity. We also report that phytochromes A and B play roles in phototropic responses to unilateral light and that these roles differ in the two gravitational environments. Finally, we conclude that while root phototropism in unilateral red and blue differs significantly between the microgravity and omnidirectional stimuli, the RPM can serve as a reasonable analogue of microgravity conditions for assessment of shoot phototropism.
期刊介绍:
Microgravity Science and Technology – An International Journal for Microgravity and Space Exploration Related Research is a is a peer-reviewed scientific journal concerned with all topics, experimental as well as theoretical, related to research carried out under conditions of altered gravity.
Microgravity Science and Technology publishes papers dealing with studies performed on and prepared for platforms that provide real microgravity conditions (such as drop towers, parabolic flights, sounding rockets, reentry capsules and orbiting platforms), and on ground-based facilities aiming to simulate microgravity conditions on earth (such as levitrons, clinostats, random positioning machines, bed rest facilities, and micro-scale or neutral buoyancy facilities) or providing artificial gravity conditions (such as centrifuges).
Data from preparatory tests, hardware and instrumentation developments, lessons learnt as well as theoretical gravity-related considerations are welcome. Included science disciplines with gravity-related topics are:
− materials science
− fluid mechanics
− process engineering
− physics
− chemistry
− heat and mass transfer
− gravitational biology
− radiation biology
− exobiology and astrobiology
− human physiology