Growth of Super-Dwarf Wheat on the Russian Space Station MIR

Bingham, Gail E.; Campbell, W. F.; Carman, John G.; Hole, Pam; Gillespie, L.; Nan, Rubin; Jiang, Liming; Bubenheim, David L.; Yendler, Boris; Sytchev, V.; Podolsky, Igor; Levinskikh, Margarita; Chernova, Lola; Ivanova, I. N.

doi:10.4271/961392

Cited by 20 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…With the availability of longer-duration missions and improved plant growth hardware it should be possible to explore seed-to-seed cycling in more detail on the shuttle, on the Mir space station (Salisbury et al 1995), and in the future on the International Space Station. Plant reproduction must be successful in space if man is to rely on plants for food, as well as atmosphere and water regeneration, in a closed ecological life support system (Olson et al 1988) on very long-duration missions.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Plant reproduction during spaceflight: importance of the gaseous environment

Musgrave

Kuang

Matthews

1997

Planta

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Plant reproduction is a complex developmental process likely to be disrupted by the unusual environmental conditions in orbital spacecraft. Previous results, reviewed herein, indicated difficulties in obtaining successful seen production in orbit, often relating to delayed plant development during the long-term growth necessary for a complete plant life cycle. Using short-duration exposure to spaceflight, we studied plant reproduction in Arabidopsis thaliana (L.) Heynh, during three flight experiments: CHROMEX-03 on STS-54 (6 d), CHROMEX-04 on STS-51 (10 d), and CHROMEX-05 on STS-68 (11 d). Plants were 13 - 14 d old (rosettes) at time of launch and initiated flowering shoots while in orbit. Plants were retrieved from the orbiters 2 - 3 h after landing and reproductive material was immediately processed for in-vivo observations of pollen viability, pollen tube growth, and esterase activity in the stigma, or fixed for later microscopy. Plants produced equal numbers of flowers to those controls growing on the ground but required special environmental conditions to permit fertilization and early seed development during spaceflight. In CHROMEX-03, plants were grown in closed plant growth chambers (PGCs), and male and female gametophyte development aborted at an early stage in the flight material. In CHROMEX-04, carbon dioxide enrichment was provided to the closed PGCs and reproductive development proceeded normally until the pollination stage, when there was an obstacle to pollen transfer in the spaceflight material. In CHROMEX-05, an air-exchange system was used to provide a slow purging of the PGCs with filtered cabin air. Under these conditions, the spaceflight plants apparently had reproductive development comparable to the ground controls, and immature seeds were produced. In every aspect examined, these seeds are similar to those produced by the ground control plants. The results suggest that if the physical environment around the plant under spaceflight conditions meets the physiological demands of the plant, then reproductive development can proceed normally on orbit.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Plant reproduction during spaceflight: importance of the gaseous environment

Musgrave

Kuang

Matthews

1997

Planta

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“…This temperature rise could cause reproductive disorders when ambient air temperatures are in the neighborhood of 30˚C. Arabidopsis and wheat plants grown in space were found to produce and develop flowers, but their flowers produced more sterile seeds than did ground control plants (Merkies, and Laurinavichyus, 1983;Mashinsky et al, 1994;Salisbury et al,1995).…”

Section: Possible Suppression Of Transpiration and Photosynthesis Undmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Several space flight experiments with plants in the early stage have observed poor growth, poor seed production and genetic aberrations (Merkies and Laurinavichyus, 1983;Mashinsky et al, 1994;Salisbury et al, 1995). Insufficient (Porterfield, 2002) or excess supply (Wheeler et al 1999;Monje and Bugbee, 1998) of CO 2 to plants caused their poor growth in plant growing facilities in space.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Important Role of Air Convection for Plant Production in Space Farming

2010

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The present paper aims to outline problems for growing healthy plants over a complete ontogenetic cycle in space farming. Possible e f f e c t s o f s u b -g r a v i t y o r m i c r o g r a v i t y conditions on suppression of plant growth and reproduction were summarized in a view of heat and gas exchanges between leaves and reproductive organs of plants and atmosphere. It is concluded that proper control of air movement would be essential to make the environmental variables uniform inside the plant canopy and to enhance the heat/gas exchange between plants and the ambient air and thus promote growth of healthy plants under microgravity conditions in space farming.

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“…Plant growth during the 1996/1997 experiments was much better than it was in 1995, as was to be expected with the higher irradiance levels (Salisbury, 1997;Levinskikh et al, 2000). Plants were sampled into chemical fixative (excess material into desiccant bags) at 21, 39, 52, and 63 days, with a final harvest on 06 Dec 1996 (123 growing days).…”

Section: Of the 1996/1997 Experimentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although results will not be discussed here, laboratory studies of the frozen wheat were successful (summarized in Salisbury, 1997;Levinskikh et al, 2000). The cuvettes enclosing the plants were only used during the 39-d, 1996/97 experiments, but it was possible from CO2 and H20 data from the IR analyzers to calculate photosynthesis and transpiration rates (Monje et al, 2000).…”

Section: Of the 1996/1997 Experimentsmentioning

confidence: 99%