Future research in plant biology in space: summary of critical issues and recommendations of the workshop.

Abstract

As stated in the "Introduction" of the present supple ment of Planta the workshop on "Plant Biology in Space" had to deal with three main tasks which are: firstly, to review international research progress in plant biology with special regard to the results obtained from space experiments; secondly, to define the critical questions for future research in space plant biology; and thirdly, to determine the relative importance of these questions. The first of these tasks may be fulfilled by the review papers published in this supplement. They clearly indicate that research under space conditions has significantly contributed to the recent progress in the field, with one of the best examples being the new concept for the perception of gravity by plants devel oped by Sievers and coworkers, mainly from results of space experiments. However, in spite of these fascinating new results, many questions still remain unanswered. The workshop was planned to identify these open questions and if possible to set priorities. Partly, these questions have already been embedded in the various review papers and in the two general discussion sessions printed in this supplement. The present contribution therefore attempts to summarize the final discussion session dedicated to the identification of the critical issues by also taking into account the various aspects already assessed in the review papers. Critical issues and questions for future research were defined mainly for three different domains, general issues for performing research on plants in space, issues con cerning perception of gravity in plants, and issues concerning responses of plants to gravity.