Molecular aspects of stress-gene regulation during spaceflight.
Spaceflight-associated stress has been the topic of investigation since the first terrestrial organisms were exposed to this unique environment. Organisms that evolved under the selection pressures of earth-normal environments can perceive spaceflight as a stress, either directly because gravity influences an intrinsic biological process, or indirectly because of secondary effects imparted by spaceflight upon environmental conditions. Different organisms and even different organs within an organism adapt to a spaceflight environment with a diversity of tactics. Plants are keenly sensitive to gravity for directed development, and are also sensitive to other stresses associated with closed-system spaceflight environments. Within the past decade, the tools of molecular biology have begun to provide a sophisticated evaluation of spaceflight-associated stress and the genetic responses that accompany metabolic adaptation to spaceflight.
Paul
Anna-Lisa
AL
Program in Plant Molecular and Cellular Biology, Horticultural Sciences Department, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32601-0690, USA.
Ferl
Robert J
RJ
D000222:Adaptation, Physiological; D017360:Arabidopsis / Q000235:genetics; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; D017343:Genes, Plant; D017930:Genes, Reporter; D010944:Plants / Q000235:genetics; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology; D013026:Space Flight; D014893:Weightlessness