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Plant Physiology 100:692-698 (1992)
© 1992 American Society of Plant Biologists

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Environmental and Stress Physiology

Studies on the Growth and Indole-3-Acetic Acid and Abscisic Acid Content of Zea mays Seedlings Grown in Microgravity 1

Aga Schulze, Philip J. Jensen, Mark Desrosiers, J. George Buta2 and Robert S. Bandurski

Department of Botany and Plant Pathology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan 48824-1312

Measurements were made of the fresh weight, dry weight, dry weight-fresh weight ratio, free and conjugated indole-3-acetic acid, and free and conjugated abscisic acid in seedlings of Zea mays grown in darkness in microgravity and on earth. Imbibition of the dry kernels was for 17 h prior to launch. Growth was for 5 d at ambient orbiter temperature and at a chronic accelerational force of the order of 3 x 10–5 times earth gravity. Weights and hormone content of the microgravity seedlings were, with minor exceptions, not statistically different from seedlings grown in normal gravity. The tissues of the shuttle-grown plants appeared normal and the seedlings differed only in the lack of orientation of roots and shoots. These findings, based upon 5 d of growth in microgravity, cannot be extrapolated to growth in microgravity for weeks, months, and years, as might occur on a space station. Nonetheless, it is encouraging, for prospects of bioregeneration of the atmosphere and food production in a space station, that no pronounced differences in the parameters measured were apparent during the 5 d of plant seedling growth in microgravity.

2 Current address: Horticultural Quality Laboratory, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Beltsville, MD 20705.

1 Supported by grants from the NASA Flight Program NAG 2-362 and by NASA Space Biology NAGW-97 and NAG 10-0067.






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