From Spaceflight to Mars g-Levels: Adaptive Response of A. Thaliana Seedlings in a Reduced Gravity Environment Is Enhanced by Red-Light Photostimulation

The response of plants to the spaceflight environment and microgravity is still not well understood, although research has increased in this area. Even less is known about plants’ response to partial or reduced gravity levels. In the absence of the directional cues provided by the gravity vector, the plant is especially perceptive to other cues such as light. Here, we investigate the response of Arabidopsis thaliana 6-day-old seedlings to microgravity and the Mars partial gravity level during spaceflight, as well as the effects of red-light photostimulation by determining meristematic cell growth and proliferation. These experiments involve microscopic techniques together with transcriptomic studies. We demonstrate that microgravity and partial gravity trigger differential responses. The microgravity environment activates hormonal routes responsible for proliferation/growth and upregulates plastid/mitochondrial-encoded transcripts, even in the dark. In contrast, the Mars gravity level inhibits these routes and activates responses to stress factors to restore cell growth parameters only when red photostimulation is provided. This response is accompanied by upregulation of numerous transcription factors such as the environmental acclimation-related WRKY-domain family. In the long term, these discoveries can be applied in the design of bioregenerative life support systems and space farming.
This research was funded by the Agencia Estatal de Investigación of the Spanish Ministry of Science an Innovation, Grants #ESP2015-64323-R and #RTI2018-099309-B-I00 (co-funded by EU-ERDF) to F.J.M., by pre-doctoral fellowships to A.M. and A.V. from the Spanish National Program for Young Researchers Training (MINECO, Ref. #BES-2013-063933, #BES-2016-077976) and the Seedling Growth Project for ISS experimentation #LSRA2009-0932/ 1177, a shared project of ESA-ELIPS Program and NASA, to F.J.M. and J.Z.K. In addition, J.Z.K. is funded by Grants NNX12A065G and 80NSSC17K0546. This research is related to the Space Omics TT funded by the ESA contract 4000131202/20/NL/PG to R.H.