Phenomenica: Space tomato

A genetically altered tomato seed that couldn’t last long in space experiments, have blossomed on Earth, producing plants that could survive severe drought and are amazingly high on nutrients.

The tomato seed, designed to better withstand the rigors of space, was created by Mariya Khodakovskaya was a researcher at North Carolina State University, US.

The seeds were flown to the International Space Station in August 2007. Though they successfully germinated, the plants didn’t last long.

“The seedlings grew for a short period, and then they got no taller and died,” said Chris Brown, a plant biologist at North Carolina State University.

The team strongly suspected that the problem was not microgravity, per se, but adverse growing conditions, such as a lack of air circulation, according to Brown. “We think they died due to a lack of air flow,” he said.

The space plants were contained in special chambers designed by BioServe Space Technologies, a non-profit NASA-sponsored research center at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

The chambers contained a solution of nutrients that would feed the plants as long as there was moisture present.

While the space experiment was a bust, the transgenic seeds blossomed on Earth, producing plants that could survive severe drought.

“Three weeks without water will kill most tomato plants. The transgencis came back, which is really cool and has huge implications for Earth agriculture,” Brown told Discovery News.

According to Khodakovskaya, a plant physiologist, she has since developed a new breed that in addition to tolerating drought, produces a leafy plant with fruit high in lycopene, an antioxidant.

via Phenomica