Project description:Characterization of Epigenetic Regulation in an Extraterrestrial Environment: The Arabidopsis Spaceflight Methylome [Bisulfite-seq]
Project description:transcriptome response of Arabidopsis cultivar Columbia and WS whole plants and plant tissue roots, hypocotyls and shoots to the spaceflight environment Arabidopsis thaliana was evaluated for its response to the spaceflight environment in three replicated experiments on the International Space Station. Two approaches were used; GFP reporter genes were used to collect gene expression data in real time within unique GFP imaging hardware, and plants were harvested on orbit to RNAlater for subsequent analyses of gene expression with using Affymetrix and SAGE transcriptome analyses. Three tissue types were examined (leaves, hypocotyls and roots) and compared to analyses conducted with whole plants. Transcriptome analyses with whole plants suggested that the spaceflight environment had little impact on the transcriptome of arabidopsis, however, closer examination of selected tissues revealed that there are a number of tissue-specific responses that arabidopsis employs to respond to this novel environment. This experiment was launched on STS-131 in 2010 and was supported by NASA grant NNX07AH27G - Transgenic Plant Biomonitors of Space Flight Exposure to R.J. Ferl and A-L. Paul.
Project description:Arabidopsis thaliana was evaluated for its response to the spaceflight environment in three replicated experiments on the International Space Station. Two approaches were used; GFP reporter genes were used to collect gene expression data in real time within unique GFP imaging hardware, and plants were harvested on orbit to RNAlater for subsequent analyses of gene expression with using Affymetrix and SAGE transcriptome analyses. Three tissue types were examined (leaves, hypocotyls and roots) and compared to analyses conducted with whole plants. Transcriptome analyses with whole plants suggested that the spaceflight environment had little impact on the transcriptome of arabidopsis, however, closer examination of selected tissues revealed that there are a number of tissue-specific responses that arabidopsis employs to respond to this novel environment
Project description:transcriptome response of Arabidopsis cultivar Columbia etiolated seedlings and undifferentiated tissue culture cells to the spaceflight environment We address a key baseline question of whether gene expression changes are induced by the orbital environment, and then we ask whether undifferentiated cells, cells presumably lacking the typical gravity response mechanisms, perceive spaceflight. Arabidopsis seedlings and undifferentiated cultured Arabidopsis cells were launched in April, 2010, as part of the BRIC-16 flight experiment on STS-131. Biologically replicated DNA microarray and averaged RNA digital transcript profiling revealed several hundred genes in seedlings and cell cultures that were significantly affected by launch and spaceflight. The response was moderate in seedlings; only a few genes were induced by more than 7-fold, and the overall intrinsic expression level for most differentially expressed genes was low. In contrast, cell cultures displayed a more dramatic response, with dozens of genes showing this level of differential expression, a list comprised primarily of heat shock-related and stress-related genes. This baseline transcriptome profiling of seedlings and cultured cells confirms the fundamental hypothesis that survival of the spaceflight environment requires adaptive changes that are both governed and displayed by alterations in gene expression. The comparison of intact plants with cultures of undifferentiated cells confirms a second hypothesis: undifferentiated cells can detect spaceflight in the absence of specialized tissue or organized developmental structures known to detect gravity. This experiment was launched on STS-131 in 2010 and was supported by NASA grant NNX10AF45G - The Impact of Spaceflight on Arabidopsis: Deep Sequencing and DNA Arrays as Collaborative Readouts of the Transcriptome of Arabidopsis Seedlings and Undifferentiated Cells in Space to A-L. Paul and R.J. Ferl.
Project description:The Arabidopsis spaceflight transcriptome: a comparison of whole plants to discrete root, hypocotyl and shoot responses to the orbital environment
