Synthetic biological circuit tested in spaceflight

Kitto, Rebekah Z.; Dhillon, Yadvender; Bevington, James; Horne, Mera Fayez; Giegé, Philippe; Drouard, Laurence; Heintz, Dimitri; Villette, Claire; Corre, Nicolas; Arrivé, Mathilde; Manefield, Michael; Bowman, Robert N.; Favier, Jean-Jacques; Osborne, Barnaby; Welch, Chris; McKay, Christopher P.; Hammond, Ming C.

doi:10.1016/j.lssr.2020.09.002

Cited by 2 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…Genes related to cell wall and membrane structure were shown to be differentially expressed at the Moon-g levels (Herranz et al, 2019 ). The results of the present study show that plant biology experiments on one of the robotic lunar landers would be feasible in a CubeSat-type habitat system for plant growth (Kitto et al, 2021). Our current experiments supplement the CubeSat with our previous experiments performed on the International Space Station in which seedlings of Arabidopsis thaliana were successfully grown in similar hardware.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 58%

“…Our current experiments supplement the CubeSat with our previous experiments performed on the International Space Station in which seedlings of Arabidopsis thaliana were successfully grown in similar hardware. In our previous study on the ISS (Kitto et al, 2021), we showed that synthetic biology has potential spaceflight applications. Thus, an exogenously inducible biological circuit for protein production in Arabidopsis thaliana, pX7-AtPDSi, was flown and was functional in the microgravity environment of spaceflight.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Of course, a sealed volume also implies that plant metabolism will change the composition of the internal gas volume over time as seeds germinate and seedlings grow. We have flown this basic design to ISS as part of the International Space University experiment, known as Hydra 1, which focused on the comparison of genetically modified and wild-type Arabidopsis thaliana grown together in the same sealed experiment (Kitto et al, 2021) over a 20-day experiment initiated after reaching the ISS by the addition of water to the seed platform. The camera and LED lights were interior to the plant chamber.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Only 90 ml of water is needed for each trial run. We note that there was no problem with water distribution in the microgravity Hydra1 experiment on the ISS (Kitto et al, 2021). Temperature within the chamber is controlled at 22.5 ± 1.5°C by use of an external loop water system.…”

Section: Carbon Balance and Co 2 Profilementioning

confidence: 97%

“…In the Hydra 1 experiment, the temperature control was provided by the CubeSat rack, which held the unit. The lack of precision control resulted in temperatures warmer than optimal and may have negatively affected the experiment (Kitto et al, 2021). The CO 2 in the gas phase at time of sealing was ~ 2000 ppm (Figure 4) due to enhanced CO 2 in the indoor environment where the chamber was assembled and sealed.…”

Section: Carbon Balance and Co 2 Profilementioning

confidence: 99%

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Design of Spaceflight Hardware for Plant Growth in a Sealed Habitat for Experiments on the Moon

Bowman

McKay

Kiss

2022

Gravitational and Space Research

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Plant growth experiments on near-term lunar landers need to be relatively small, lightweight, and self-contained. Here, we report on the design of a ~1 liter volume (1U Cubesat size) hermetically sealed habitat suitable for plant growth experiments during the first 10 days of seedling development of Arabidopsis thaliana and Brassica nigra. Images from a single interior camera show germination and provide quantitative data on seedling height, leaf area, and circumnutations. After 10 days with illumination from LEDs, the photosynthetic area of Arabidopsis cotyledons per seedling reached 300 mm2. Seedling height, inferred from the overhead camera using reference markers, reached was 15 ± 5 mm. Robust circumnutation in seedlings was observed. CO2 increased as expected due to respiration in the seeds during germination reaching levels of 5000 ppm after 3 days before declining to 3000 ppm on day 10 due to photosynthetic uptake. No CO2 was added to the sealed chamber during the experiments. These results show that fundamental studies of germination and initial growth can be conducted in a small volume (1 L) hermetically sealed unit with only an overhead camera and CO2 sensor. Hardware based on this approach would be suitable for lunar experiments on robotic landers.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 58%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Carbon Balance and Co 2 Profilementioning

confidence: 97%

Section: Carbon Balance and Co 2 Profilementioning

confidence: 99%

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Design of Spaceflight Hardware for Plant Growth in a Sealed Habitat for Experiments on the Moon

Bowman

McKay

Kiss

2022

Gravitational and Space Research

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Growth and Development of Ecotypes of Arabidopsis thaliana: Preliminary Experiments to Prepare for a Moon Lander Mission

Shymanovich

Kiss

2020

Gravitational and Space Research

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NASA is planning to launch robotic landers to the Moon as part of the Artemis lunar program. We have proposed sending a greenhouse housed in a 1U CubeSat as part of one of these robotic missions. A major issue with these small landers is the limited power resources that do not allow for a narrow temperature range that we had on previous spaceflight missions with plants. Thus, the goal of this project was to extend this temperature range, allowing for greater flexibility in terms of hardware development for growing plants on the Moon. Our working hypothesis was that a mixture of ecotypes of Arabidopsis thaliana from colder and warmer climates would allow us to have successful growth of seedlings. However, our results did not support this hypothesis as a single genotype, Columbia (Col-0), had the best seed germination, growth, and development at the widest temperature range (11–25 °C). Based on results to date, we plan on using the Columbia ecotype, which will allow engineers greater flexibility in designing a thermal system. We plan to establish the parameters of growing plants in the lunar environment, and this goal is important for using plants in a bioregenerative life support system needed for human exploration on the Moon.

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Synthetic biological circuit tested in spaceflight

Cited by 2 publications

References 27 publications

Design of Spaceflight Hardware for Plant Growth in a Sealed Habitat for Experiments on the Moon

Design of Spaceflight Hardware for Plant Growth in a Sealed Habitat for Experiments on the Moon

Growth and Development of Ecotypes of Arabidopsis thaliana: Preliminary Experiments to Prepare for a Moon Lander Mission

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