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Morning Glory Seeds Resist UV Radiation

posted by Fnord666 on Friday May 05 2017, @07:22AM   Printer-friendly
from the new-colony-with-curb-appeal dept.

takyon writes:

Morning glory seeds could potentially survive a trip between planets:

Natural sunscreens help morning glory seeds survive doses of ultraviolet (UV) radiation that would burn most humans to a crisp, according to a new study. The hardy seeds of the common flowering plant would probably even survive a voyage between planets, say the researchers. This might help researchers decide which species to send on future missions to Mars, a place that is bombarded with UV light because of its thin atmosphere. It also validates the concept of panspermia, the idea that life might have hopscotched through our solar system—or others—by hitching a ride on asteroids or comets.

"These results add to the fast-growing body of evidence showing that panspermia is not only possible, but absolutely inevitable," says Chandra Wickramasinghe, director of the Buckingham Centre for Astrobiology at the University of Buckingham in the United Kingdom, who was not involved in the study.

The research began a decade ago, when astronauts placed about 2000 seeds from tobacco plants and a flowering plant known as Arabidopsis thaliana on the outside of the International Space Station. For 558 days, the seeds were exposed to high levels of UV light, cosmic radiation, and extreme temperature fluctuations—conditions that are lethal to most forms of life. [...] They found that only morning glory seeds germinated [open, DOI: 10.1089/ast.2015.1457] [DX] after being exposed to light roughly 6 million times the dose typically used to sterilize drinking water, conditions that killed the much smaller tobacco and A. thaliana seeds.

Did somebody say interplanetary trip?

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  • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 05 2017, @08:36AM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 05 2017, @08:36AM (#504734)

    The research began a decade ago, when astronauts placed about 2000 seeds from tobacco plants and a flowering plant known as Arabidopsis thaliana on the outside of the International Space Station. For 558 days, the seeds were exposed to high levels of UV light, cosmic radiation, and extreme temperature fluctuations—conditions that are lethal to most forms of life. [...] They found that only morning glory seeds germinated

    The morning glory seeds were in a lab, and the plants placed on the outside of the ISS did germinate:

    We tested the plausibility of inherent resistance in plant seeds, reporting in a previous paper that Arabidopsis thaliana and tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) seeds exposed for 558 days outside the International Space Station (ISS) germinated and developed into fertile plants after return to Earth.
    [...]
    To test UV resistance in long-lived, larger seeds, we exposed Arabidopsis, tobacco, and morning glory seeds in the laboratory to doses of UV254nm, ranging as high as 2420 MJ m-2. Morning glory seeds resisted this maximum dose, which killed tobacco and Arabidopsis.

    http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/pdf/10.1089/ast.2015.1457 [liebertpub.com]

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  • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 05 2017, @04:14PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 05 2017, @04:14PM (#504962)

    I guess they didn't try Kudzu.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 05 2017, @04:44PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 05 2017, @04:44PM (#504987)

      Nor systemd.

  • (Score: 3, Funny) by bob_super on Friday May 05 2017, @05:33PM

    by bob_super (1357) on Friday May 05 2017, @05:33PM (#505024)

    I need to tell my wife that her attitude and clothing are better than space and radiation at killing morning glory.