From Spaceflight to Mars g-Levels: Adaptive Response of A. Thaliana Seedlings in a Reduced Gravity Environment Is Enhanced by Red-Light Photostimulation

Villacampa, Alicia; Ciska, Malgorzata; Manzano, Aránzazu; Vandenbrink, Joshua P.; Kiss, John Z.; Herranz, Raúl; Medina, F. Javier

doi:10.3390/ijms22020899

Cited by 30 publications

(41 citation statements)

References 140 publications

(209 reference statements)

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“…Other investigators have documented transcriptional changes with partial g levels [ 6 , 15 , 16 ]. Similar to our study, these spaceflight experiments were also conducted in the EMCS facility and allowed for simultaneous g gradients with different ranges.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Differing methodology and hardware choices confound direct comparisons between these studies, but Arabidopsis gene expression alterations in response to spaceflight have been observed for a variety of protein functional groups, including heat shock proteins (HSP)s [ 7 , 10 , 11 ], plant defense proteins [ 8 ], light response proteins [ 12 ], and cell wall proteins [ 9 , 10 ]. However, only a few spaceflight experiments to date have examined gene expression under fractional gravity in a systematic fashion [ 15 , 16 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Uncovering Transcriptional Responses to Fractional Gravity in Arabidopsis Roots

Sheppard

Land

Toennisson

et al. 2021

Life

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Although many reports characterize the transcriptional response of Arabidopsis seedlings to microgravity, few investigate the effect of partial or fractional gravity on gene expression. Understanding plant responses to fractional gravity is relevant for plant growth on lunar and Martian surfaces. The plant signaling flight experiment utilized the European Modular Cultivation System (EMCS) onboard the International Space Station (ISS). The EMCS consisted of two rotors within a controlled chamber allowing for two experimental conditions, microgravity (stationary rotor) and simulated gravity in space. Seedlings were grown for 5 days under continuous light in seed cassettes. The arrangement of the seed cassettes within each experimental container results in a gradient of fractional g (in the spinning rotor). To investigate whether gene expression patterns are sensitive to fractional g, we carried out transcriptional profiling of root samples exposed to microgravity or partial g (ranging from 0.53 to 0.88 g). Data were analyzed using DESeq2 with fractional g as a continuous variable in the design model in order to query gene expression across the gravity continuum. We identified a subset of genes whose expression correlates with changes in fractional g. Interestingly, the most responsive genes include those encoding transcription factors, defense, and cell wall-related proteins and heat shock proteins.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Uncovering Transcriptional Responses to Fractional Gravity in Arabidopsis Roots

Sheppard

Land

Toennisson

et al. 2021

Life

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“…Physiological and cellular alterations are related to changes in gene expression, which have been identified by transcriptomic studies from space and ground experiments (Paul et al, 2012;Kwon et al, 2015;Johnson et al, 2017;Paul et al, 2017;Choi et al, 2019;Herranz et al, 2019;Kamal et al, 2019;Vandenbrink et al, 2019;Kruse et al, 2020;Villacampa et al, 2021a). In some cases, complementary proteomic studies were also performed (Kruse et al, 2020).…”

Section: Plants and Gravity Plant Response And Acclimation To Microgravitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In contrast, the Mars gravity level inhibits these routes and activates responses to stress factors to restore cell growth parameters, only when red photostimulation is provided. This response is accompanied by upregulation of several transcription factors (TFs), such as the environmental acclimation-related WRKY family (Villacampa et al, 2021a). WRKYs are a family of numerous TFs, many of them involved in both abiotic and biotic stress responses, related to hormonal signaling and in acclimation processes (Phukan et al, 2016).…”

Section: Growth Of Plants In Fractional Gravity Studies In Space and In Ground Based Facilitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding Reduced Gravity Effects on Early Plant Development Before Attempting Life-Support Farming in the Moon and Mars

Medina

Manzano

Villacampa

et al. 2021

Front. Astron. Space Sci.

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Plants are a necessary component of any system of bioregenerative life-support for human space exploration. For this purpose, plants must be capable of surviving and adapting to gravity levels different from the Earth gravity, namely microgravity, as it exists on board of spacecrafts orbiting the Earth, and partial-g, as it exists on the surface of the Moon or Mars. Gravity is a fundamental environmental factor for driving plant growth and development through gravitropism. Exposure to real or simulated microgravity produces a stress response in plants, which show cellular alterations and gene expression reprogramming. Partial-g studies have been performed in the ISS using centrifuges and in ground based facilities, by implementing adaptations in them. Seedlings and cell cultures were used in these studies. The Mars gravity level is capable of stimulating the gravitropic response of the roots and preserving the auxin polar transport. Furthermore, whereas Moon gravity produces alterations comparable, or even stronger than microgravity, the intensity of the alterations found at Mars gravity was milder. An adaptive response has been found in these experiments, showing upregulation of WRKY transcription factors involved in acclimation. This knowledge must be improved by incorporating plants to the coming projects of Moon exploration.

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“…Finally, the authors suggest that polyamines modulate the size of root meristem and that it is through the interaction with auxin and cytokinin signaling and the accumulation of ROS is achieved. In the report by Villacampa et al [ 5 ], it was demonstrated that the growth and proliferation of meristematic cells could be affected by microgravity and partial gravity together with red light photostimulation. The authors proposed that the resulting data might be valuable in the future for designing bioregenerative life support systems and space farming.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%