Growth and development of plants in a row of generations under the conditions of space flight (experiment Greenhouse-5)

• Published in: Aviakosmicheskaia i Äkologicheskaia meditsina Vol. 35; no. 4; p. 45
• Main Authors: Levinskikh, M A, Sychev, V N, Derendiaeva, T A, Signalova, O B, Podol'skiĭ, I G, Avdeev, S V, Bingheim, G E
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English; Russian
• Published: Russia (Federation) 2001
• Subjects: Aerospace Medicine; Plant Development; Seeds; Space Flight; NASA Discipline Plant Biology; Non-NASA Center
• ISSN: 0233-528X

Results of the experiment aimed at harvesting a second space generation of wheat var. Apogee in Mir greenhouse Svet (experiment GREENHOUSE-5) are presented. In space flight, germination rate of space seeds from the first crop made up 89% against 100% of the ground seeds. The full biological ripeness was observed in 20 plants grown from the ground seeds and one plant grown from the space seeds following 80- to 90-d vegetation. The plant of the second space generation was morphologically different neither from the species in the first space crop nor from the ground controls. To study the biological characteristics of Apogee seeds gathered in the first and second crops in spaceflight experiment GREENHOUSE-5, the seeds were planted on their return to the laboratory. Morphometric analysis showed that they were essentially similar to the controls. Hence, the space experiments in Mir greenhouse Svet performed during 1998-1999 gave proof that plants cultivated in microgravity can pass the ontogenetic cycle more than once. However, initial results of the investigations into growth and development of plants through several generations are still in-sufficient to speak of possible delayed effects of the spaceflight factors (microgravity, multicomponent radiation, harmful trace contaminants etc.).