The experiment is a part of the Texas A&M/Aegis Aerospace Multi-Use Space Platform Integrating Research and Innovative Technology (TAMU-SPIRIT) research mission.
New Delhi: Researchers in Texas are planning to send hundreds of grape seeds to the International Space Station to study the impact of cosmic radiation on plant genetics.
To space and backThe seeds will spend about six months aboard the ISS, following which they’ll be brought back to Earth and planted along with a control group of identical seeds that were not sent to space.
One of three plant varieties being sent to space is the lomanto, a type of grape developed by TV Munson, a horticulturalist often called ‘the grape man of Texas’.
At the time, scientists realised that if they grafted European vines onto American grape roots, their grapes would finally survive the plague.
“The research will help us understand how different levels of radiation impact the seeds and their varietal genetic expression once we grow them, but there is also the novelty that in several years we will potentially be bottling wine from seeds that left Earth,” Justin Scheiner, AgriLife Extension viticulture specialist and associate professor in the Texas A&M Department of Horticultural Sciences, said in a statement .
The experiment is a part of the Texas A&M/Aegis Aerospace Multi-Use Space Platform Integrating Research and Innovative Technology (TAMU-SPIRIT) research mission. TAMU-SPIRIT-1 is an orbital research platform which will be deployed aboard the International Space Station (ISS). As a “satellite campus in space”, it is meant to host a series of research projects.
New Delhi: Researchers in Texas are planning to send hundreds of grape seeds to the International Space Station to study the impact of cosmic radiation on plant genetics. In a few years, this experiment could lead to the world’s first wine made from grapes that have taken a trip to space.
To space and back
The seeds will spend about six months aboard the ISS, following which they’ll be brought back to Earth and planted along with a control group of identical seeds that were not sent to space. Scientists will then study the difference in how the plants grow.
One of three plant varieties being sent to space is the lomanto, a type of grape developed by TV Munson, a horticulturalist often called ‘the grape man of Texas’. Munson grew famous during the Great French Wine Blight, or the Phylloxera Epidemic, in the late 19th century, when a microscopic insect was unknowingly introduced to Europe.
Phylloxera nearly destroyed two-thirds of European vineyards before horticulturalists found that American grapes were resistant to it. At the time, scientists realised that if they grafted European vines onto American grape roots, their grapes would finally survive the plague.
This episode in the history of grapes highlights the importance of studying plants to understand what could make them more resilient and adaptive.
“From a research standpoint, we want to see how being in space might influence these varieties. For the wine geek in me, it would be very interesting if these seeds show some random positive mutation has occurred that represents the single point of origin for a new variety,” Scheiner added.
(Edited by Prasanna Bachchhav)
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