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posted by takyon on Friday October 19 2018, @08:11PM   Printer-friendly
from the fungi-in-space dept.

Submitted via IRC for Bytram

Plant hormone makes space farming a possibility

With scarce nutrients and weak gravity, growing potatoes on the moon or on other planets seems unimaginable. But the plant hormone strigolactone could make it possible, plant biologists from the University of Zurich have shown. The hormone supports the symbiosis between fungi and plant roots, thus encouraging plants' growth—even under the challenging conditions found in space.

The idea of establishing colonies for people to live on the moon or on other planets has been bounced around for a while now—and not just by NASA, but also by private entrepreneurs such as Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk. The prospect of colonization and long-term human space expeditions raise the issue of sustainably providing food for people in space. One possible answer is to cultivate crops in situ. However, the soils on the moon and on other planets are lower in nutrients compared to Earth-based soil. The alternative—transporting nutrient-rich soil and fertilizers into space—comes with a high economic and ecological cost.

Plant-fungal symbiosis promotes plant growth

When looking for a possible solution, the research group working with Lorenzo Borghi of the University of Zurich and Marcel Egli of the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts concentrated on the process of mycorrhiza, a symbiotic association between fungi and plant roots. In this symbiosis, the fungal hyphae supply the plant roots with additional water, nitrogen, phosphates and trace elements from the ground. In return, they get access to sugar and fat produced by the plant. This symbiosis is stimulated by hormones of the strigolactone family, which most plants secrete into the soil around their roots. The process of mycorrhization can greatly increase plant growth and thereby substantially improve crop yields—especially in soil that is low in nutrients.

Simulated microgravity and the antagonistic influence of strigolactone on plant nutrient uptake in low nutrient conditions (open, DOI: 10.1038/s41526-018-0054-z) (DX)


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  • (Score: 2) by VLM on Friday October 19 2018, @08:41PM (1 child)

    by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Friday October 19 2018, @08:41PM (#751141)

    This seems a little false dilemma ish

    The alternative—transporting nutrient-rich soil and fertilizers into space—comes with a high economic and ecological cost.

    So just set up hydroponic gardens? You need places to store a shitload of water and places to store oxygen producing algaes, and places to hold several feet deep tanks of water to shield radiation, so if you have to build what looks like a hydro facility regardless of where you grow your food, you may as well grow some tomatoes.

    Its also very unclear why a tech to make nutrients more available is somehow a binary choice vs fertilizer use. Why not both? Why would any good agronomist not fix soil chemistry if its known bad, regardless of how cool some shroom growth accelerator is?

    Note that I'm not claiming its not cool tech. It is in fact fascinating and cool tech, and will likely be of considerable use; just mostly not on the ISS. I am claiming the journalist picked bad bait in the clickbait sense. "Now we'll be able to grow sugar cane for ethanol" or some BS like that might have sold better. Or "now africa doesn't have to starve" (as if that's avoidable). Or even just "now we can sell more organic produce slightly cheaper at Whole Foods" might sell better to the audience.

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  • (Score: 2) by VLM on Friday October 19 2018, @08:58PM

    by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Friday October 19 2018, @08:58PM (#751150)

    With a heaping side dish of

    Simulated microgravity

    Does not go well together with:

    However, the soils on the moon and on other planets are lower in nutrients compared to Earth-based soil.

    Much like there are people who think Australians have to hold on the ground all the time so as not fall off the earth, there are likely people who think Mars surface is a microgravity location... however...

    With a side dish to the side dish of a lot of scientists are unsure humans can live in microgravity "forever" such that deep space missions will likely be rotating the whole way anyway, so again, where we planning on growing this zero-G stuff anyways?