Plant Responses to Gravity, Microgravity, and Space Environment
A special issue of Plants (ISSN 2223-7747). This special issue belongs to the section "Plant Response to Abiotic Stress and Climate Change".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (17 June 2022) | Viewed by 7776
Special Issue Editor
Interests: gravity sensing; calcium signaling; ROS signaling; calcium–ROS networks; ion channels; mechanosensors; protein kinases; long-distance signals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Gravity is a ubiquitous force on Earth affecting morphogenesis in plants and animals to help them to support their own weight, as evidenced in the fact that, for example, most plants on Earth grow shoots upwards and roots downwards. The upward bending of coleoptiles and stems of horizontally reoriented plants, known as gravitropism, is the most common event visualizing the effect of gravity on organisms. Plant gravitropism is a mysterious phenomenon that has attracted attention since ancient times.
In order to clarify how plants are able to sense gravity and the underlying mechanisms of gravitropism, a number of studies have been conducted on numerous plant species, suggesting that plants can sense both the direction and intensity of gravity through asymmetric auxin transport, morphological responses, changes in gene expression, and the evocation of intracellular signaling events. It is notable that studies in microgravity and hypergravity conditions have cast light on new phenomena such as hydrotropism that are not generally possible on Earth due to gravity. Furthermore, studies in spacecrafts and space stations have revealed that such environments strongly affect plant growth and development through, for instance, cosmic rays, loss of heat convection. and high CO2 elevated by the crew’s exhalation.
As our fundamental understanding of the effect of gravity, microgravity, and space environments on plants has broadened, we have also come to realize that much remains to be discovered. This Special Issue will highlight the roles of molecules, mechanisms, and systems involved in gravisensing, gravitropism, gravimorphoenesis, and adaptation to space environments at the molecular, cellular, and tissue levels, as well as the whole plant level, and systems that materialize sustainable food production in bases on the Moon and Mars.
Prof. Dr. Takuya Furuichi
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- gravimorphogenesis
- gravitropism
- gravity sensors
- space farming
- space stress
- CELSS (controlled ecological life-support system)
- agricultural environmental engineering
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