Journal
PHYTOCHEMISTRY
Volume 57, Issue 6, Pages 847-857Publisher
PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
DOI: 10.1016/S0031-9422(01)00145-5
Keywords
Pseudotsuga menziesii; Douglas fir; Pinus taeda; loblolly pine; Pinaceae; lignin; cellulose; compression wood; microgravity
Categories
Ask authors/readers for more resources
In the microgravity environment of the Space Shuttle Columbia (Life and Microgravity Mission STS-78), were grown 1-year-old Douglas fir and loblolly pine plants in a NASA plant growth facility. Several plants were harnessed (at 45 degrees) to establish if compression wood biosynthesis, involving altered cellulose and lignin deposition and cell wall structure would occur under those conditions of induced mechanical stress. Selected plants were harnessed at day 2 in orbit, with stem sections of specific plants harvested and fixed for subsequent microscopic analyses on days 8, 10 and 15. At the end of the total space mission period ( 17 days). the remaining healthy harnessed plants and their vertical (upright) controls were harvested and fixed on earth. All harnessed (at 45 degrees;) plant specimens, whether grown at g or in microgravity, formed compression wood. Moreover, not only the cambial cells but also the developing tracheid cells underwent significant morphological changes. This indicated that the developing tracheids from the primary cell wall expansion stage to the fully lignified maturation stags are involved in the perception and transduction of the stimuli stipulating the need Fur alteration of cell wall architecture. It is thus apparent that, even in a microgravity environment, woody plants can make appropriate corrections to compensate for stress gradients introduced by mechanical bending, thereby enabling compression wood to be formed. The evolutionary implications of these findings are discussed in terms of variability in cell wall biosynthesis. (C) 2001 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available