REDESIGNING PLANTS FOR SPACEFLIGHT AND BEYOND: TRANSFER OF GENES FROM PYROCOCCUS
Abstract
While much progress has been made in designing
biospheres for optimal plant growth and long term habitation in space, plant productivity remains a major
limiting factor for sustainable bioregenerative life support. To meet these challenges, we propose that plant biologists should work with engineers to redesign plants. For example, the mechanisms that plants engage to sense environmental cues can be replaced or modified to eliminate Earth-based responses no longer needed in space and to add responses that will improve growth in a biosphere. In addition, synthetic approaches can be used to fine tune plant responses to stress by expressing genes from organisms that thrive in extreme environments. Producing extremophilic proteins in crop plants can increase a plant’s tolerance to rapid changes in temperature and improve growth in environments which might otherwise be sensed as stressful. Future efforts to redesign plants provide unlimited promise for developing sustainable bioregenerative life support systems and will lead to new fundamental insights into the regulation of plant growth and development.
biospheres for optimal plant growth and long term habitation in space, plant productivity remains a major
limiting factor for sustainable bioregenerative life support. To meet these challenges, we propose that plant biologists should work with engineers to redesign plants. For example, the mechanisms that plants engage to sense environmental cues can be replaced or modified to eliminate Earth-based responses no longer needed in space and to add responses that will improve growth in a biosphere. In addition, synthetic approaches can be used to fine tune plant responses to stress by expressing genes from organisms that thrive in extreme environments. Producing extremophilic proteins in crop plants can increase a plant’s tolerance to rapid changes in temperature and improve growth in environments which might otherwise be sensed as stressful. Future efforts to redesign plants provide unlimited promise for developing sustainable bioregenerative life support systems and will lead to new fundamental insights into the regulation of plant growth and development.