Effect of Spaceflight on Tomato Seed Quality and Biochemical Characteristics of Mature Plants

Elena Dzhos,Anton Shkaplerov,Galina Nechitailo,Andrew Koshevarov,Nadezhda Golubkina,Gianluca Caruso,Irina Kondratyeva,Marina Antoshkina,Tatiana Zavarykina

doi:10.3390/horticulturae7050089

Abstract

Intensive space exploration includes profound investigations on the effect of weightlessness and cosmic radiation on plant growth and development. Tomato seeds are often used in such experiments though up to date the results have given rather vague information about biochemical changes in mature plants grown from seeds subjected to spaceflight. The effect of half a year of storage in the International Space Station (ISS) on tomato seeds (cultivar Podmoskovny ranny) was studied by analyzing the biochemical characteristics and mineral content of mature plants grown from these seeds both in greenhouse and field conditions. A significant increase was recorded in ascorbic acid, polyphenol and carotenoid contents, and total antioxidant activity (AOA), with higher changes in the field conditions compared to greenhouse. Contrary to control plants, the ones derived from space-stored seeds demonstrated a significant decrease in root AOA. The latter plants also showed a higher yield, but lower content of fruit dry matter, sugars, total dissolved solids and organic acids. The fruits of plants derived from space-stored seeds demonstrated decreased levels of Fe, Cu and taste index. The described results reflect the existence of oxidative stress in mature tomato plants as a long-term consequence of the effect of spaceflight on seed quality, whereas the higher yield may be attributed to genetic modifications.

Highlights

Seeds were transported to the International Space Station (ISS) on 19 December 2017 by the cosmonaut Shraplerov through the transportable manned spacecraft MS-07
Tomato plants grown both from control and space-stored seeds had a shorter crop cycle in greenhouse (90–94 days) compared to open field (115–120 days) (Table 1), due to the higher temperatures recorded in the first environment
Fruit yield and marketability were recorded for tomato plants grown from space-stored seeds compared to the control ones, with higher values in the more favorable growth conditions in greenhouse (Table 2)

Summary

Introduction

Previous investigations of the effects of space radiation and microgravity on plant growth and development achieved on Russian and American space stations revealed insignificant changes in plant morphology, which suggests good prospects of plant cultivation in space [9,10].

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Results

Conclusion