Successful plant reproduction under spaceflight conditions has been problematic in the past. During a 122 d opportunity on the Mir space station, full life cycles of Brassica rapa L. were completed ...in microgravity in a series of three experiments in the Svet greenhouse. Ultrastructural and cytochemical analyses of storage reserves in mature dry seeds produced in these experiments were compared with those of seeds produced during a high-fidelity ground control. Additional analyses were performed on developing Brassica embryos, 15 d post pollination, which were produced during a separate experiment on the Shuttle (STS-87). Seeds produced on Mir had less than 20% of the cotyledon cell number found in seeds harvested from the ground control. Cytochemical localization of storage reserves in mature cotyledons showed that starch was retained in the spaceflight material, whereas protein and lipid were the primary storage reserves in ground control seeds. Protein bodies in mature cotyledons produced in space were 44% smaller than those in the ground control seeds. Fifteen days after pollination, cotyledon cells from mature embryos formed in space had large numbers of starch grains, and protein bodies were absent, while in developing ground control seeds at the same stage, protein bodies had already formed and fewer starch grains were evident. These data suggest that both the late stage of seed development and maturation are changed in Brassica by growth in a microgravity environment. While gravity is not absolutely required for any step in the plant life cycle, seed quality inBrassica is compromised by development in microgravity.
Chemical gradients and structural features within the pistil have been previously proposed as factors determining the directionality of pollen tube growth. In this study, we examine the behavior of ...pollen of eight species germinated in a dynamic oxygen gradient. While the germination rates of some species decreased directly with decreasing oxygen tension, other species showed no decrease in germination at oxygen tensions as low as 2 kPa. In one species, germination was consistently greater at decreased oxygen tensions than at ambient atmospheric levels. In three of the eight species tested, the developing pollen tube showed clear directional growth away from the more-oxygenated regions of the growth medium, while in one species growth was towards the more-oxygenated region. The remaining four species showed random tube growth. The pattern of oxytropic responses among the taxa suggests that this tropic behavior is both widespread and phylogenetically unpredictable.
Optically pumped polarized 3He++ ion source development for RHIC/EIC Zelenski, A.; Atoian, G.; Beebe, E. ...
Nuclear instruments & methods in physics research. Section A, Accelerators, spectrometers, detectors and associated equipment,
10/2023, Letnik:
1055
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
The proposed polarized 3He++ acceleration in RHIC and the future Electron-Ion Collider will require about 2×1011 ions in the source pulse. A new technique had been proposed for production of high ...intensity polarized 3He++ ion beams. It is based on ionization and accumulation of the 3He gas (polarized by metastability-exchange optical pumping and in the 5T high magnetic field) in the existing Electron Beam Ion Source (EBIS). A novel 3He cryogenic purification and storage technique was developed to provide the required gas purity. An original gas refill and polarized 3He gas injection to the EBIS long drift tubes, (which serves as the storage cell) were developed to ensure polarization preservation. An infrared laser system for optical pumping and polarization measurements in the high 3–5T field has been developed. The 3He polarization 80–85% (and sufficiently long ∼30min relaxation time) was obtained in the “open” cell configuration with refilling valve tube inlet and isolation valve closed. The development of the spin-rotator and 3He4He absolute nuclear polarimeter at 6MeV 3He++ beam energy is also presented.
An unforeseen side-effect on plant growth in reduced oxygen is the loss of seed production at concentrations around 25% atmospheric (50 mmol mol-1 O2). In this study, the model plant Arabidopsis ...thaliana (L.) Heynh. cv. 'Columbia' was used to investigate the effect of low oxygen on ethylene biosynthesis during seed development. Plants were grown in a range of oxygen concentrations (210 equal to ambient, 160, 100, 50 and 25 mmol mol-1) with 0.35 mmol mol-1 CO2 in N2. Ethylene in full-sized siliques was sampled using gas chromatography, and viable seed production was determined at maturity. Molecular analysis of ethylene biosynthesis was accomplished using cDNAs encoding 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid (ACC) synthase and ACC oxidase in ribonuclease protection assays and in situ hybridizations. No ethylene was detected in siliques from plants grown at 50 and 25 mmol mol-1 O2. At the same time, silique ACC oxidase mRNA increased three-fold comparing plants grown under the lowest oxygen with ambient controls, whereas ACC synthase mRNA was unaffected. As O2 decreased, tissue-specific patterning of ACC oxidase and ACC synthase gene expression shifted from the embryo to the silique wall. These data demonstrate how low O2 modulates the activity and expression of the ethylene biosynthetic pathway during seed development in Arabidopsis.
Optically pumped polarized 3He++ ion source development for RHIC/EIC Zelenski, A.; Atoian, G.; Beebe, E. ...
Nuclear instruments & methods in physics research. Section A, Accelerators, spectrometers, detectors and associated equipment,
06/2023, Letnik:
1055
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
The proposed polarized 3He++ acceleration in RHIC and the future Electron-Ion Collider will require about 2×1011 ions in the source pulse. A new technique had been proposed for production of high ...intensity polarized 3He++ ion beams. It is based on ionization and accumulation of the 3He gas (polarized by metastability-exchange optical pumping and in the 5T high magnetic field) in the existing Electron Beam Ion Source (EBIS). A novel 3He cryogenic purification and storage technique was developed to provide the required gas purity. An original gas refill and polarized 3 He gas injection to the EBIS long drift tubes, (which serves as the storage cell) were developed to ensure polarization preservation. An infrared laser system for optical pumping and polarization measurements in the high 3–5 T field has been developed. The 3He polarization 80–85% (and sufficiently long ~30 min relaxation time) was obtained in the “open” cell configuration with refilling valve tube inlet and isolation valve closed. The development of the spin-rotator and 3He4 He absolute nuclear polarimeter at 6 MeV 3He++ beam energy is also presented here in this work.
A series of experiments was conducted aboard the U.S. space shuttle and the Mir space station to evaluate microgravity-induced root zone hypoxia in rapid-cycling Brassica (Brassica rapa L.), using ...both root and foliar indicators of low-oxygen stress to the root zone. Root systems from two groups of plants 15 and 30 d after planting, grown in a phenolic foam nutrient delivery system on the shuttle (STS-87), were harvested and fixed for microscopy or frozen for enzyme assays immediately postflight or following a ground-based control. Activities of fermentative enzymes were measured as indicators of root zone hypoxia and metabolism. Following 16 d of microgravity, ADH (alcohol dehydrogenase) activity was increased in the spaceflight roots 47% and 475% in the 15-d-old and 30-d-old plants, respectively, relative to the ground control. Cytochemical localization showed ADH activity in only the root tips of the space-grown plants. Shoots from plants that were grown from seed in flight in a particulate medium on the Mir station were harvested at 13 d after planting and quick-frozen and stored in flight in a gaseous nitrogen freezer or chemically fixed in flight for subsequent microscopy. When compared to material from a high-fidelity ground control, concentrations of shoot sucrose and total soluble carbohydrate were significantly greater in the spaceflight treatment according to enzymatic carbohydrate analysis. Stereological analysis of micrographs of sections from leaf and cotyledon tissue fixed in flight and compared with ground controls indicated no changes in the volume of protoplast, cell wall, and intercellular space in parenchyma cells. Within the protoplasm, the volume occupied by starch was threefold higher in the spaceflight than in the ground control, with a concomitant decrease in vacuolar volume in the spaceflight treatment. Both induction of fermentative enzyme activity in roots and accumulation of carbohydrates in foliage have been repeatedly shown to occur in response to root zone oxygen deprivation. These results indicate that root zone hypoxia is a persistent challenge in spaceflight plant growth experiments and may be caused by microgravity-induced changes in fluid and gas distribution.
Plant reproduction is a complex developmental process likely to be disrupted by the unusual environmental conditions in orbital spacecraft. Previous results, reviewed herein, indicated difficulties ...in obtaining successful seed production in orbit, often relating to delayed plant development during the long-term growth necessary for a complete plant life cycle. Using short-duration exposure to spaceflight, we studied plant reproduction in Arabidopsis thaliana (L.) Heynh. during three flight experiments: CHROMEX-03 on STS-54 (6 d), CHROMEX-04 on STS-51 (10 d), and CHROMEX-05 on STS-68 (11 d). Plants were 13-14 d old (rosettes) at time of launch and initiated flowering shoots while in orbit. Plants were retrieved from the orbiters 2-3 h after landing and reproductive material was immediately processed for in-vivo observations of pollen viability, pollen tube growth, and esterase activity in the stigma, or fixed for later microscopy. Plants produced equal numbers of flowers to those controls growing on the ground but required special environmental conditions to permit fertilization and early seed development during spaceflight. In CHROMEX-03, plants were grown in closed plant growth chambers (PGCs), and male and female gametophyte development aborted at an early stage in the flight material. In CHROMEX-04, carbon dioxide enrichment was provided to the closed PGCs and reproductive development proceeded normally until the pollination stage, when there was an obstacle to pollen transfer in the spaceflight material. In CHROMEX-05, an air-exchange system was used to provide a slow purging of the PGCs with filtered cabin air. Under these conditions, the spaceflight plants apparently had reproductive development comparable to the ground controls, and immature seeds were produced. In every aspect examined, these seeds are similar to those produced by the ground control plants. The results suggest that if the physical environment around the plant under spaceflight conditions meets the physiological demands of the plant, then reproductive development can proceed normally on orbit.
Rapid-cycling Brassica populations were initially developed as a model for probing the genetic basis of plant disease. Paul Williams and co-workers selected accessions of the six main species for ...short time to flower and rapid seed maturation. Over multiple generations of breeding and selection, rapid-cycling populations of each of the six species were developed. Because of their close relationship with economically important Brassica species, rapid-cycling Brassica populations, especially those of B. rapa (RCBr) and B. oleracea, have seen wide application in plant and crop physiology investigations. Adding to the popularity of these small, short-lived plants for research applications is their extensive use in K-12 education and outreach.
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