Triple traits improvement in genetic engineering tomatoes for space exploration     Mariya Khodakovskaya¹, Christopher Brown^1,3, Jacob B. Freeman², Louis Stodieck² and Heike W. Sederoff ^{1     1}Department of Plant Biology, ³Kenan Institute for Engineering, Technology and Science, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC
²BioServe Space Technologies, Boulder, CO

Tomato plants have been evaluated as an excellent crop for Advanced Life Support for Space Exploration. Important features of plants for Human Space Exploration are stress tolerance to changes in the physical environment, biomass, and nutritional value. We have generated transgenic tomato plants (cv. Micro-Tom) expressing the inositol polyphosphate  5 phosphatase. These plants have lower levels of inositol-1,4,5 polyphosphate (InsP3) and show enhanced tolerance to drought, seven-fold increases in lycopene levels in mature fruits and a five-fold increase in biomass (dry weight) compared to wild type and vector control lines (Khodakovskaya et al., in preparation). The seeds of the transgenic lines have a higher germination rate under stress conditions. We will test these transgenic tomato lines in flight-space conditions.   The experiment will be part of the CGBA Science Insert (CSI-02) mission launched on STS-118 to the International Space Station (August, 2007). The plants will be cultivated in the CSI-02 Plant Development Habitat with specific lighting for plant growth.  We anticipate to present images of the control and transgenic tomato lines during flight-space experiment.

 (Supported by NASA grant NAG2-1566 to CSB and NC Space Grant 526294 to MVK)