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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: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 20 2018, @12:30AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 20 2018, @12:30AM (#751223)

    "How do University of Lucerne researchers get away with this?" asks Crown Prince Mohamad bin Salman. "We tried to supply some of the decorative plants at our embassy in Turkey with additional nitrogen, phosphates and trace elements and the international community gets on our case."

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