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Plants
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Effects of the Extraterrestrial Environment on Plants
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Effects of the Extraterrestrial Environment on Plants

A special issue of Plants (ISSN 2223-7747). This special issue belongs to the section "Plant Response to Abiotic Stress and Climate Change".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2023) | Viewed by 4015

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Veronica De Micco

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Agricultural Sciences, University of Naples "Federico II", Portici 80055, NA, Italy
Interests: functional anatomical traits; linking structure and eco-physiology; plant hydraulics; wood formation; dendroecology; quantitative wood anatomy; stable isotopes; drought; ionizing radiation; altered gravity; crop biology in CEA; Mediterranean ecosystems; plant adaptive strategies in extra-terrestrial environments
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Carmen Arena

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Biology, Unversity of Naples “Federico II”, Naples 80126, NA, Italy
Interests: plant ecology; photosynthetic regulation mechanisms; antioxidant defences; plant–soil interactions; plants and abiotic stress; pollutants and photosynthesis
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Chiara Amitrano

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Agricultural Sciences, University of Naples “Federico II”, Portici 80055, NA, Italy
Interests: photosynthesis; plant environmental stress physiology; chlorophyll fluorescence; plant–water relations; abiotic stress tolerance; environmental stresses; ecophysiology; controlled environment; plant stomata; plant anatomy

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue welcomes high-quality papers that study the effects of an extraterrestrial environment on plants (e.g., responses to altered gravity, radiation tolerance mechanisms) as well as on cultivation challenges in space farming (e.g., nutrient and water delivery systems, light and airflow management, and ISRU—in situ resource utilization) to achieve a deeper knowledge about the role of autotrophs in bioregenerative life-support systems (BLSS) for human space exploration.

The long-term human permanence in space, on orbital stations, planetary platforms, or spaceships for exploratory-class manned missions, will rely on BLSS. These systems, attempting to create an Earth-like environment, cannot exist without autotrophs, which represent a source of fresh and high-quality food, and are fundamental for important ecological functions such as air regeneration, water recovery, and waste recycling. Plants can adapt to extreme environments on Earth and can grow and develop even in the presence of extraterrestrial factors such as microgravity and ionizing radiation, which represent two of the most relevant constraints in space. However, the development of BLSS requires advances and synergic interactions among engineering, agrotechnology, botany, plant ecology, and medical expertise. Knowledge about the short- and long-term effects of the extraterrestrial factors on plant growth and development is necessary to choose the best species, define the requirements of cultivation facilities, and develop cultivation protocols in BLSS. The current literature shows that modifications at the genetic, morpho-anatomical, and eco-physiological levels occur in photosynthetic organisms grown in ground-based experiments simulating space environments or in space. Moreover, in closed environments, especially in the case of reduced volumes, environmental factors (such as light intensity and quality, CO2 concentration, relative humidity, water availability, and substrate type) need to be accurately selected, modulated, monitored, and controlled in order to obtain good yields in terms of biomass production, the quality of edible parts, and photosynthetic rates.

Prof. Dr. Veronica De Micco
Prof. Dr. Carmen Arena
Dr. Chiara Amitrano
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Plants is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • bioregenerative life support systems (BLSS)
  • altered gravity
  • space biology
  • ionizing radiation
  • extreme like-space environments
  • controlled environment agriculture
  • space farming
  • Moon
  • Mars
  • ISRU
  • space analogues

Published Papers (3 papers)

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22 pages, 36186 KiB  
Article
Bread Wheat in Space Flight: Is There a Difference in Kernel Quality?
by Tatiana S. Aniskina, Kirill A. Sudarikov, Margarita A. Levinskikh, Alexander A. Gulevich and Ekaterina N. Baranova
Plants 2024, 13(1), 73; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants13010073 - 25 Dec 2023
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Abstract
Planning long-term space flights necessarily includes issues of providing food for the crew. One of the areas of research is the development of technologies for independent production of food by the crew. Extensive research on lettuce has confirmed that the “space production” of [...] Read more.
Planning long-term space flights necessarily includes issues of providing food for the crew. One of the areas of research is the development of technologies for independent production of food by the crew. Extensive research on lettuce has confirmed that the “space production” of lettuce is not inferior to that on Earth, even in the absence of gravity, but the same deep understanding of the quality of grain crops has not yet been achieved. Therefore, the goal of our work is to establish whether the conditions for growing wheat in outer space without gravity affect the weight and basic parameters of the grain, and whether this leads to increased asymmetry of the kernel and distortion of the starch composition. The objects of the study were wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) kernels of the Super Dwarf cultivar. Of which, 100 kernels matured in outer space conditions in the Lada growth chamber on the International Space Station (ISS), and 85 kernels of the control wheat grown in a similar growth chamber under terrestrial conditions. It has been established that kernels from ISS have significant differences to a smaller extent in weight, area, length, and width of the kernel. However, the kernels under both conditions were predominantly large (the average weight of a kernel in space is 0.0362 g, and in terrestrial conditions—0.0376 g). The hypothesis that the level of fluctuating asymmetry will increase in outer space was not confirmed; significant differences between the options were not proven. In general, the kernels are fairly even (coefficients of variation for the main parameters of the kernel are within 6–12%) and with a low or very low level of asymmetry. The length of starch granules of type A in filled and puny kernels is significantly greater in kernels from ISS than in the control, and in terms of the width of starch granules B and roundness indices, both experimental variants are the same. It can be assumed that the baking qualities of earthly kernels will be slightly higher, since the ratio of type B starch granules to type A is 5–8% higher than on the ISS. Also, the width of the aleurone layer cells in mature kernels was significantly inferior to the result obtained on Earth. The work proposes a new method for establishing the asymmetry of kernels without a traumatic effect (in early works, it was supposed to study asymmetry in transverse sections of the kernels). Perhaps this will make it possible to further develop a computer scanning program that will determine the level of asymmetry of the wheat fruit. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Effects of the Extraterrestrial Environment on Plants)
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22 pages, 2622 KiB  
Article
Iodine-Biofortified Microgreens as High Nutraceutical Value Component of Space Mission Crew Diets and Candidate for Extraterrestrial Cultivation
by Maria Giordano, Michele Ciriello, Luigi Formisano, Christophe El-Nakhel, Antonio Pannico, Giulia Graziani, Alberto Ritieni, Marios C. Kyriacou, Youssef Rouphael and Stefania De Pascale
Plants 2023, 12(14), 2628; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants12142628 - 12 Jul 2023
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Abstract
The success of Space missions and the efficacy of colonizing extraterrestrial environments depends on ensuring adequate nutrition for astronauts and autonomy from terrestrial resources. A balanced diet incorporating premium quality fresh foods, such as microgreens, is essential to the mental and physical well-being [...] Read more.
The success of Space missions and the efficacy of colonizing extraterrestrial environments depends on ensuring adequate nutrition for astronauts and autonomy from terrestrial resources. A balanced diet incorporating premium quality fresh foods, such as microgreens, is essential to the mental and physical well-being of mission crews. To improve the nutritional intake of astronaut meals, two levels of potassium iodide (KI; 4 µM and 8 µM) and an untreated control were assessed for iodine (I) biofortification, and overall nutraceutical profile of four microgreens: tatsoi (Brassica rapa L. subsp. narinosa), coriander (Coriandrum sativum L.), green basil, and purple basil (Ocimum basilicum L.). A dose-dependent increase in I was observed at 8 µM for all species, reaching concentrations of 200.73, 118.17, 93.97, and 82.70 mg kg−1 of dry weight, in tatsoi, coriander, purple basil, and green basil, respectively. Across species, I biofortification slightly reduced fresh yield (–7.98%) while increasing the antioxidant activity (ABTS, FRAP, and DPPH). LC–MS/MS Q extractive orbitrap analysis detected 10 phenolic acids and 23 flavonoids among microgreen species. The total concentration of phenolic acids increased (+28.5%) in purple basil at 8 µM KI, while total flavonoids in coriander increased by 23.22% and 34.46% in response to 4 and 8 µM KI, respectively. Both doses of KI increased the concentration of total polyphenols in all species by an average of 17.45%, compared to the control. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Effects of the Extraterrestrial Environment on Plants)
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8 pages, 250 KiB  
Brief Report
Can Peat Amendment of Mars Regolith Simulant Allow Soybean Cultivation in Mars Bioregenerative Life Support Systems?
by Antonio Giandonato Caporale, Roberta Paradiso, Greta Liuzzi, Nafiou Arouna, Stefania De Pascale and Paola Adamo
Plants 2023, 12(1), 64; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants12010064 - 22 Dec 2022
Viewed by 1140
Abstract
Higher plants will play a key role in human survival in Space, being able to regenerate resources and produce fresh food. However, the creation of a fertile substrate based on extra-terrestrial soils is still a challenge for space cultivation. We evaluated the adaptability [...] Read more.
Higher plants will play a key role in human survival in Space, being able to regenerate resources and produce fresh food. However, the creation of a fertile substrate based on extra-terrestrial soils is still a challenge for space cultivation. We evaluated the adaptability of soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merr.) cultivar ‘Pr91M10′ to three substrates, the Mojave Mars regolith Simulant MMS-1, alone (R100), and in a mixture with blond sphagnum peat at two different volumes, 85:15 (R85P15) and 70:30 (R70P30), in plants directly sown on the substrates or transplanted after sowing on peat. The low pH of peat (4.34) allowed the mitigation of the alkalinity of the Mars regolith simulant (pH 8.86), lowering the initial pH to neutral (6.98, R85P15), or subacid to neutral (6.33, R70P30) values. Seed germination reached the highest percentage in the shortest time in the mixture of regolith simulant with 15% of peat. The cultivation substrate did not affect the plant growth and nutritional status. However, a significant interaction between the substrate and planting method was found in several growth parameters, with the highest positive effects observed in plants resulting from direct sowing on the regolith mixture with peat. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Effects of the Extraterrestrial Environment on Plants)
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