Can the seeds of plants germinate, grow, bloom, and produce seeds in space? In the Wentian experimental cabin of the space station, an interesting plant growth experiment is underway.
Since the installation of the experimental unit was completed on July 28, and the experiment was started through ground program injection instructions on July 29, in the past month, the Arabidopsis and rice seeds launched with the cabin have germinated under microgravity conditions. , currently growing in good condition.
"The Arabidopsis thaliana seedlings have grown many leaves, the tall rice seedlings have grown to about 30 centimeters tall, and the short rice seedlings are also 5 to 6 centimeters tall." On August 29, at the Molecular Plant Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Shanghai Center for Excellence in Innovation, the reporter met the research team responsible for this experiment. Team leader Zheng Huiqiong, a researcher at the Center of Excellence for Molecular Plants, told reporters that the world's first "from seed to seed" rice full life cycle cultivation experiment under space microgravity conditions is expected to be completed soon.
Why do plant experiments in the sky
Plant growth experiments in the space environment began more than 60 years ago. Since humans launched the first artificial earth satellite in the 1950s, how to use plants to ensure the food, oxygen, and pure water needed for human survival in the extraterrestrial environment has become one of the most concerning issues in space life sciences. one.
Scientists expect to study how to cultivate or cultivate plants in completely enclosed space conditions, explore the conditional factors and technical approaches required for efficient crop production in a space environment, and screen and create new crop varieties suitable for space production, thereby establishing the basis for Plant-based space biological regeneration life support system will ultimately achieve the goal of human long-term space exploration.
"When animals, plants and humans enter the weightless environment of space, various 'space syndromes' will occur, such as slow movement, chaotic direction, late flowering, slow growth, and long life... Therefore, it is necessary to understand and clarify the role of gravity in biological life activities. The mechanism of action in the plant is necessary and important and is a basic issue that needs to be solved in the manned space project. "Zheng Huiqiong told reporters that over the past 60 years, scientists have conducted a lot of research on planting and cultivating plants in space. More than 20 kinds of plant cultivation experiments were carried out in the aircraft.
In the early days, the main goal of space plant culture experiments was to explore how to feed plants in a space environment, and some basic space plant biology issues, such as tropic growth of plants, root formation and germination, seed components, genes and proteins Expression changes, etc., have also been studied in depth during this process. Han Bin, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and director of the Center of Excellence for Molecular Plants, said that at present, scientists' research focus has gradually expanded from research on plant seedling stages to research on seed production. However, only a few crops such as rapeseed, wheat and peas have completed "from seed to seed" experiments in space. At the same time, under spatial conditions, problems such as delayed flowering time, low number of flowers, low seed setting rate and reduced seed quality have not been overcome.
"'Blooming' is the prerequisite for plants to produce a new generation of seeds. Crop seeds are both food and carriers for propagating the next generation. Therefore, there is an urgent need to study how to control the key link of plant development, that is, the regulatory mechanism of 'blooming', "Provide guidance for improving space plant cultivation technology and exploring more food crop production that adapts to space life support requirements," Han Bin said.
He emphasized that since life on earth cannot survive without protection in the harsh space environment, future space crop production must be carried out in a completely closed artificial environment, with very limited planting space and energy supply. In particular, the environment of space microgravity will lead to huge changes in crop growth, morphological development, genetic regulation and other aspects. “It is necessary to study the growth patterns of space crops and further cultivate high-yielding and high-quality crop varieties suitable for space cultivation to serve the food security needs of mankind’s long-term space exploration."Han Bin said, "At the same time, the plant growth and development data and theories obtained in the unique microgravity and radiation environment can also provide new support and inspiration for ground crop breeding and production. ”
How to do a plant growth experiment in the sky
On July 24, the Wentian experimental module of the space station was successfully launched and rendezvoused with the Tianhe core module. The Wentian experimental module is equipped with scientific experiment cabinets such as life ecology experiment cabinets and biotechnology experiment cabinets. .
htmlOn July 28, the experimental unit carrying the experimental samples Arabidopsis seeds and rice seeds was installed by astronauts into the life and ecology general experimental module of the Wentian experimental module. The first liquid filling was completed the next day. And started the on-orbit experiment, which was also the first time it was carried out in the Wentian experimental cabin. The experimental cabinet of the experiment.Zhao Liping, a researcher at the Space Application Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the chief designer of the Wentian Experimental Cabin of the Manned Space Engineering Space Application System, told reporters that under the conditions of space microgravity, the experiment was carried out by regulating the light period . . Starting from August 5th, Implement a 12-hour on and 12-hour off lighting cycle for rice, and a 16-hour on and 8-hour off lighting cycle for Arabidopsis. According to the requirements of the research team, ensure that the temperature, humidity, and light control are normal.
Zheng Huiqiong introduced this. The project focuses on " higher plants under microgravity conditions" "Molecular Mechanism of Flowering Regulation of ", the selected spatial experimental samples - Arabidopsis thaliana and rice, are two model plants. Among them, Arabidopsis represents dicotyledons , Changri, cruciferous plants , and many vegetables , such as vegetables, rapeseed, etc., all belong to The word Floraceae . Rice represents monocotyledonous, short-day, and grass plants. Many food crops, such as wheat and corn, belong to the family Gramineae .
can be seen in the images returned from the space station. Arabidopsis and rice seeds germinate normally and have entered Seedling growth stage. Zheng Huiqiong said that what is interesting is that without the gravity of the earth, the rice leaves initially grow in a spiral shape. Now, the tall rice stalks have reached about 30 centimeters tall and look soft and "osteoporotic". It looks like some of the leaves of dwarf rice are "lying" on the wall of the experimental unit. The breeding process is in line with expectations, and it is expected to produce seeds in space for the first time in the world, completing the "from seed to seed" life cycle experiment under microgravity conditions.
"The information revealed by the image is still incomplete. , in the next step we will conduct quantitative statistical analysis on the growth behavior of plants. "Zheng Huiqiong told reporters that the rice seeds selected this time have a short growth cycle. High-stem rice on the ground usually takes about 70 days to produce seeds. It may take longer in space. It is expected that seeds can be produced in two to three months. Experimental process During the mission, astronauts will collect seed samples, freeze them, and finally return to the ground with the astronauts for analysis. Previously, rice seeds have only been planted twice in the space environment. In the seed germination experiment, the rice cultivated by Zheng Huiqiong's team in the "Tiangong 2" laboratory is not so high.
"From seed to seed" can reveal what
completes the whole life of "from seed to seed" under the conditions of space microgravity. Periodic culture experiments focus on three key scientific questions: How does microgravity affect Flowering? What is the molecular mechanism by which microgravity affects plant flowering? Can the effects of microgravity be used to control plant flowering? By analyzing and comparing the role of microgravity in the flowering process of plants, we can gain insights into these three key scientific questions. Microgravity regulates the molecular basis of flowering and the expression changes of key genes to further analyze the long day and short day under space microgravity conditions. The regulatory network of flowering gene expression of
in plants, and the mechanism of action of the two in plant adaptability to space environment."On this basis, we can obtain the key environmental parameters of rice space culture, which will provide further analysis of space microgravity." The influence and molecular basis of rice growth and development provide important theoretical guidance for using rice for spatial food production. "Zheng Huiqiong said.
Next, by astronauts collecting samples in orbit, freezing them and returning them for analysis, scientists can reveal the flowering regulatory molecular network and key hub genes of plants that adapt to the space environment, and conduct functional verification of them, laying the foundation for the next step of constructing structures that can adapt to space microgravity. Providing molecular components for high-yielding and quality crops in the environment.
The Arabidopsis thaliana and rice seeds brought back by astronauts will have the opportunity to be sent to the space station for two to three generations of reproduction in space. "In the future, it is possible to form new concepts, drive new developments in microgravity plant developmental biology research, and lay a theoretical foundation for future space vegetable and food production." Han Bin said.
(Reporter Yan Weiqi)
Source: Guangming Daily
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