New Findings Indicate Gene-Edited Rice Might Survive in Martian Soil:
As outlined in the team's abstract, Rice Can Grow and Survive in Martian Regolith with Challenges That Could be Overcome Through Control of Stress-Related Genes, one of the biggest challenges to growing food on Mars is the presence of perchlorate salts, which have been detected in the planet's soil and are generally considered to be toxic for plants.
The team was able to simulate Martian soil using basaltic rich soil mined from the Mojave Desert, called the Mojave Mars Simulant, or MMS, which was developed by scientists from NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
The teams then grew three varieties of rice, including one wild-type and two gene-edited lines with genetic mutations that better enable them to respond to stress, such as drought, sugar starvation or salinity. These varieties were grown in the MMS, as well as a regular potted mix and a hybrid of the two. While plants were able to grow in the Martian simulant, they were not as developed as those grown in the potting soil and hybrid mix. Replacing just a quarter of the Martian simulant with potting soil resulted in improved development.
The team also experimented with the amount of perchlorate in the soil, finding that 3 grams per kilogram was the threshold beyond which nothing would grow, while mutant strains could still root in 1 gram per kilogram.
Their findings suggest that there might be a way forward for genetically modified rice to find purchase in Martian soil.
(Score: 2, Offtopic) by VLM on Wednesday May 17, @04:42PM (3 children)
The standard hard sci fi answer as of late 2010s decade was perchlorate eating bacteria "bioremediation" helpfully they poop out oxygen when they eat perchlorate.
Note this is not genetic engineered bacteria, comes naturally from mine tailing in central america, although I suppose you could genetically engineer the bacteria to be more Mars-friendly.
Its a kind of serious problem IRL on earth. Much like you 'can not' store diesel without algae and similar crap growing in it, if you try to store perchlorate solutions at "sub one molar" concentration, regular ole earth dirt bacteria WILL eat your perchlorate solution. So if you want to have a standardized 10 ppm solution of sodium perchlorate perhaps to test your groundwater safety or whatever typical test lab purposes, you have to add a biocide to perchlorate standards or your 'standard' will drift over time as the bacteria eat it. Its much like the challenge of storing wine/ethanol long term, if its not distilled up to a higher concentration or pasteurized or something, there's microbes that would love to turn your precious ethanol into vinegar.
Anyway the point of the above ramble about earth bacteria/fungi eating perchlorate because they think its delicious, why bother GE plants that survive in perchlorates if plain old dirt bacteria will rapidly eat the perchlorate soon enough anyway? I don't think Martians will pay for GE seeds they don't technically need...
I would propose "maybe" the idea is parallel processing, seed the fresh Martian dirt with perchlorate-tolerant plants for their first crop, meanwhile the bacteria eat the perchlorate and poop out oxygen, and the SECOND crop is normal earth seeds because the perchlorate is all gone. Or it could ease contamination issues where a shovel full of fresh Mars dirt could theoretically kill a small (well, a raised bed's worth) field of plants.
(Score: 4, Funny) by DannyB on Wednesday May 17, @04:59PM
First, that is a needlessly simple solution to a problem where a much more complex solution would have sufficed.
Second, you did not even point out the patent revenue opportunities of GE plants that Martians would send back to poor struggling Monsanto.
How often should I have my memory checked? I used to know but...
(Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Wednesday May 17, @05:46PM (1 child)
Presumably the bacteria need oxygen to respire. So bacteria solution requires a MOXIE plant, along with a heat source (to stop them freezing).
I guess the GE rice solution requires a heat source, light source and a pump (to bring CO2 pressure up to something reasonable). I think this is easier infrastructure to bring to Mars, in terms of weight.
(Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Wednesday May 17, @05:48PM
Apologies, I read your comment again and see that you assert that the bacteria makes Oxygen. My bad.
(Score: 2) by Revek on Wednesday May 17, @06:04PM (2 children)
So it can survive a hazardous substance. Is it going to be safe to eat?
This page was generated by a Swarm of Roaming Elephants
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 17, @06:55PM
Will it survive anti-GMO activists trying to destroy the test fields?
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Thursday May 18, @01:49AM
Probably, as long as they tailor it to grow along with the gene-edited mice that can survive in the martian soil.
Dammit, I need to read these headlines more carefully.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday May 17, @06:07PM (3 children)
Martian sunlight profiles (weaker, different absorption spectra) from the:
Martian atmosphere - if you're not outside that creates all kinds of additional infrastructure requirements to the point that you might as well go full hydroponic anyway.
Oh, and while we're at it: water? This is rice we're talking about after all, where will the water be coming from (and going to)?
Nifty that they can go GMO to handle some perchlorates, did anybody think we're growing non-GMO crops on Mars within the next 50,000 years, anyway?
But, at this stage, it feels like we're in a full artificial growing environment on Mars anyway, like: https://lp.amplifiedaginc.com/catch-all/ [amplifiedaginc.com] - so who cares about dirt?
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 17, @08:54PM (2 children)
where will the water be coming from
They'll probably mine it. There seems to be plenty of evidence it exists in solid form, perhaps not too far beneath the surface. People living on Mars will have to be moles for most of the time anyway because of the radiation.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday May 17, @09:10PM (1 child)
Well, I guess we're looking at flooded rice paddies in giant lava tubes then (with solar panels up top and LED emitters on the farm), because if you let that water out on the surface it's going bye bye in a hurry.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 17, @09:58PM
Although the water will boil on the surface (at least, I suppose, during the daylight), all is not lost because you do need boiling water to cook rice.