ASGSB 1999 Annual Meeting Abstracts

PECTIN LOCALIZATION IN WALLS OF POTATO TUBERS GROWN IN SPACE. M.E. Cook¹ and J.L Croxdale². ¹Dept of Biological Sciences, Illinois State University, and ² Dept of Botany, University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Potato tubers that form in microgravity are not unlike those that form on Earth.  Tubers formed in both places are similar in size, weight, and shape. Both have highly ordered interior cell arrangements, and the cells contain a typical complement of organelles in addition to proteinaceous crystals.  Although there are no visible differences in wall structure, some cell walls of spaceflight tubers are thinner than those of control tubers.  We hypothesized that these walls might not contain the same wall components, or that the components might be present in differing amounts or in spatially different patterns. Using ground controls and tubers formed during the 16 d mission of the shuttle Columbia (STS-73), we immunolocalized wall components at the TEM level using JIMs 5 and 7, monoclonal antibodies that recognize unesterified and esterified pectins, respectively.  We evaluated the presence and spatial distribution of these wall components in tuber cells.

(Supported by NASA grant NAGW 4022. Wall antibodies were kindly provided by Maureen McCann of the John Innes Centre.)

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