NASA Public Affairs Officer Kelly Humphries talks with Camille Alleyne, International Space Station Program Scientist, about the plant research taking place aboard the station. Dr. Anna-Lisa Paul, a research associate professor from the University of Florida, joins the conversation by phone to discuss one of those experiments: the Transgenic Arabidopsis Gene Expression System , or TAGES.
TAGES uses genetically engineered plants with reporter genes that “report” back on the various reactions of the plants by using sensors sensitive to the stresses of spaceflight. Changes in the plants can be monitored in real time while on orbit. The reporter genes are visualized as a green fluorescent glow by imaging systems built into the hardware carrying the experiment.
Plant research aboard the station has lead to a greater understanding of biological processes previously cloaked by gravity, and as researchers continue to gain new knowledge of how plants grow and develop at a molecular level, this insight also may lead to significant advances in agriculture production on Earth.
The ability of plants to provide a source of food and recycle carbon dioxide into breathable oxygen also may prove critical for astronauts as NASA sends humans deeper into space than ever before.
