ASGSB 1998 Annual Meeting Abstracts

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ENGINEERING PLANTS FOR SPACEFLIGHT ENVIRONMENTS.  B. Bugbee, Crop Physiology Laboratory, Utah State Univ., Logan UT.

The terrestrial conversion efficiency of photosynthetic radiation into biomass and yield has steadily increased for centuries because of continuous improvements in both plant genetics and environment. To date, we have primarily manipulated the environment to improve plant growth in space. We have tremendous potential to manipulate plant genetics to improve our ability to understand gravitational effects and to improve the efficiency of regenerative life support systems. There are thousands of cultivars of each of our major crop plants, each specifically adapted to a unique environment on our planet. Matching genetics with the environment alleviates stress and can dramatically improve productivity. We cannot fully characterize higher plant response to the spaceflight environment without understanding and manipulating the genetics of our plants.

For example, continuous light is often used in space to improve plant growth but it induces calcium deficiencies in wheat and other plants. We were not able to eliminate this deficiency through environmental manipulation and we finally solved it through genetic selection of wheat lines that did not develop the deficiency.

Examination of the genetic / environmental interaction was crucial to our understanding the nature of the calcium deficiency.

(Research supported by the Advanced Life Support Program, administered by the NASA Johnson Space Center).

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