title: Gene expression of rice seeds surviving 13- and 20-month exposure to space environment.
abstract: Rice seeds were exposed outside of the international space station to assess the risk of space environment exposure on gene expression associated with seed germination. The germination percentages of the space-stored and ground-stored seeds exposed for 13 months were 48 and 96% respectively. Those for 20 months were 7 and 76%, respectively. Germination was defined 3 days after imbibition, except for the space-stored seeds exposed for 20 months, which germinated 5 days after imbibition. Subsequent RNA-seq analyses of the dry seeds, germinated seeds, and roots and shoots of seedlings revealed that the mutation rates of mRNA sequences were not significantly different between space-stored and ground-stored samples exposed for 13 months and 20 months. In all, 4 and 16 transcripts of glycolysis-related genes were increased in the germinated seeds after 13-month and 20-month exposure, respectively. Also, 2 and 39 transcripts of long-lived mRNA required for germination were decreased more than 2-fold in the dry seeds after 13-month and 20-month exposure, respectively. These results suggest that damage to long-lived mRNA in seeds by a space environment delays and reduces germination.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Plant Science and Resources, Okayama University, 2-20-1 Chuo, Kurashiki, Okayama 710-0046, Japan. Electronic address: manabus@rib.okayama-u.ac.jp.
authors.forename: Manabu
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sugimoto
authors.affiliation: National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences, 2-1-2 Kannondai, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8602, Japan.
authors.forename: Youko
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Oono
authors.affiliation: National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences, 2-1-2 Kannondai, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8602, Japan.
authors.forename: Yoshihiro
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kawahara
authors.affiliation: Preventive Medicine & Diagnosis Innovation Program, RIKEN, 2-1 Hirosawa, Wako, Saitama 351-0198, Japan.
authors.forename: Oleg
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Gusev
authors.affiliation: Institute of Plant Science and Resources, Okayama University, 2-20-1 Chuo, Kurashiki, Okayama 710-0046, Japan.
authors.forename: Masahiko
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Maekawa
authors.affiliation: National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences, 2-1-2 Kannondai, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8602, Japan.
authors.forename: Takashi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Matsumoto
authors.affiliation: Institute of Biomedical Problems of Russian Academy of Sciences, 76a Khorosheevskoe shosse, Moscow 123007, Russia.
authors.forename: Margarita
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Levinskikh
authors.affiliation: Institute of Biomedical Problems of Russian Academy of Sciences, 76a Khorosheevskoe shosse, Moscow 123007, Russia.
authors.forename: Vladimir
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Sychev
authors.affiliation: Institute of Biomedical Problems of Russian Academy of Sciences, 76a Khorosheevskoe shosse, Moscow 123007, Russia.
authors.forename: Natalia
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Novikova
authors.affiliation: Institute of Biomedical Problems of Russian Academy of Sciences, 76a Khorosheevskoe shosse, Moscow 123007, Russia.
authors.forename: Anatoly
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Grigoriev
mesh_terms: D004777:Environment; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; D018525:Germination; D012275:Oryza / Q000235:genetics* / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000502:physiology; D012639:Seeds / Q000235:genetics* / Q000254:growth & development / Q000502:physiology*; D017423:Sequence Analysis, RNA; D013026:Space Flight; D018561:Space Simulation
keywords: Germination; Long-lived mRNA; RNA-seq; Rice seeds; Space environment