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Plant Secondary Metabolism in Altered Gravity

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Protocols for In Vitro Cultures and Secondary Metabolite Analysis of Aromatic and Medicinal Plants

Part of the book series: Methods in Molecular Biology ((MIMB,volume 547))

Summary

Plans by the space program to use plants for food supply and environmental regeneration have led to an examination of how plants grow in microgravity. Because secondary metabolic compounds are so important in determining the nutritional and flavor characteristics of plants—as well as making plants more resistant to biotic and abiotic stresses—their responses to altered gravity are now being studied. These experiments are technically challenging because temperature, humidity, atmospheric composition, light, and water status must be maintained around the plant while simultaneously altering the g-load, either in the free-fall of orbital spacecraft or on a centrifuge rotor. In general, plants have shown increased accumulation of small secondary metabolites in microgravity (<10−3 g), while these have decreased in hypergravity (>1-g). Gravity-related changes in the plant environment as well as mechanical loading effects account for these responses.

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Acknowledgments

This research is supported by NASA grants NAG 10-329 and NNX07AT77G to MEM.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Plant Science, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, 06269, USA

    Mary E. Musgrave

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  1. Lindsey K. Tuominen
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  2. Lanfang H. Levine
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  3. Mary E. Musgrave
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Correspondence to Mary E. Musgrave .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Applied Biology, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland

    S. Mohan Jain

  2. Department of Plant Agriculture, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, Canada

    Praveen K. Saxena

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Tuominen, L.K., Levine, L.H., Musgrave, M.E. (2009). Plant Secondary Metabolism in Altered Gravity. In: Jain, S.M., Saxena, P.K. (eds) Protocols for In Vitro Cultures and Secondary Metabolite Analysis of Aromatic and Medicinal Plants. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 547. Humana Press, Totowa, NJ. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-60327-287-2_30

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-60327-287-2_30

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