Abstract

Plants are vital components of our ecosystem for a balanced life here on Earth, as a source of both food and oxygen for survival. Recent space exploration has extended the field of plant biology, allowing for future studies on life support farming on distant planets. This exploration will utilize life support technologies for long-term human space flights and settlements. Such longer space missions will depend on the supply of clean air, food, and proper waste management. The ubiquitous force of gravity is known to impact plant growth and development. Despite this, we still have limited knowledge about how plants can sense and adapt to microgravity in space. Thus, the ability of plants to survive in microgravity in space settings becomes an intriguing topic to be investigated in detail. The new knowledge could be applied to provide food for astronaut missions to space and could also teach us more about how plants can adapt to unique environments. Here, we briefly review and discuss the current knowledge about plant gravity-sensing mechanisms and the experimental possibilities to research microgravity-effects on plants either on the Earth or in orbit.

Keywords

microgravity; Arabidopsis; amyloplast; auxin; gravity sensing; international space station

Published in

International Journal of Molecular Sciences
2022, Volume: 23, number: 18, article number: 10548
Publisher: MDPI

SLU Authors

• Baba, Abu Imran

  • Department of Forest Genetics and Plant Physiology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

Sustainable Development Goals

Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation


UKÄ Subject classification

Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Plant Biotechnology
Agricultural Science


Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms231810548

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/119185