ISS Update: Plants in Space

NASA Public Affairs Officer Kelly Humphries talks with Camille Alleyne, International Space Station Program Scientist, about the plant research taking place aboard the station. Dr. Anna-Lisa Paul, a research associate professor from the University of Florida, joins the conversation by phone to discuss one of those experiments: the Transgenic Arabidopsis Gene Expression System , or TAGES.

TAGES uses genetically engineered plants with reporter genes that "report" back on the various reactions of the plants by using sensors sensitive to the stresses of spaceflight. Changes in the plants can be monitored in real time while on orbit. The reporter genes are visualized as a green fluorescent glow by imaging systems built into the hardware carrying the experiment.

Plant research aboard the station has lead to a greater understanding of biological processes previously cloaked by gravity, and as researchers continue to gain new knowledge of how plants grow and develop at a molecular level, this insight also may lead to significant advances in agriculture production on Earth.

The ability of plants to provide a source of food and recycle carbon dioxide into breathable oxygen also may prove critical for astronauts as NASA sends humans deeper into space than ever before.

• Category

  Science & Technology

[Beefieeee]

I hope that Space Station has a Space Kicthen,

[HappilyDayzed]

Sorry Dylan there was no name to the study given in the interview so I cannot just create or fabricate something I do not know. I pointed you to the guy and where you can hear it from his mouth. I do remember him saying he was working for Boeing at the time and it was them that paid for the study. Hope that helps you.

[Dylan Burke]

I asked for the study, not an interview. I will attempt to find it anyway...

[HappilyDayzed]

Look his name up over at the Red Ice Creations website and listen to the interview yourself.

[Dylan Burke]

You've got to be kidding me... What study was that?

[MrHaris703]

go to nasa center and ask them..

[Bob Laserpants]

can't tell if shes from Jamaica or Brooklin

[82ndairborne100]

Not really, the leaves grow up towards a source of light and the roots grow into the soil because they find nutrients there. For example, have you ever put seeds in a transparent bag with water? The roots grow outwards because there is nutrients there. Then again they can't grow down.

[astrolaDOTru]

Dr. Mari Anna, which plants?

[dredre dringo]

wierd how the roots still grow down with out gravity