GRAVITY RELATED GENES IN ARABIDOPSIS - A (GENARA-A)
Research Area: Plant Biology
Expedition(s): 23 and 26
Principal Investigator(s): ● Eugenie Carnero-Diaz, PhD, Universite Pierre et Marie Curie,
Paris, France
● Francisco-Javier Medina, Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas,
Madrid, Spain
RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
Gravity Related Genes in Arabidopsis - A (Genara-A) seeks to provide an understanding of
microgravity induced altered molecular activities, which will help to find plant systems that
compensate the negative impact on plant growth in space. Twelve-day-old seedlings are grown
either in space, in the European Modular Cultivation System (EMCS) under microgravity, on a
1-g reference centrifuge, or on the ground. Proteins associated with membranes were
selectively extracted from microsomes and identified and quantified through Liquid
Chromatography-tandem Mass spectrometry (LC-MS-MS) using a label-free method, ie, a
method in mass spectrometry that aims to determine the relative amount of proteins in
biological samples.
RESULTS
Among the 1484 proteins identified and quantified in the 3
conditions mentioned above, 80 membrane-associated
proteins were significantly more abundant in seedlings
grown under microgravity in space than under 1 g and 69
were less abundant. Clustering of these proteins according
to their predicted function indicated that proteins
associated with auxin metabolism and trafficking were
depleted in the microsomal fraction in microgravity space
conditions, whereas proteins associated with stress
responses, defense, and metabolism were more abundant
in microgravity than under 1 g indicating that microgravity
is perceived by plants as a stressful environment. These
results clearly indicate that a global membrane proteomics
approach can give a snapshot of the cell status and its
signaling activity at a given time in response to
microgravity and highlight the major processes affected.PUBLICATION(S)
Mazars C, Briere C, Grat S, et al. Microgravity induces
changes in microsome-associated proteins of Arabidopsis
seedlings grown on board the International Space Station.
PLOS ONE. March 11, 2014;9(3):e91814. doi:
10.1371/journal.pone.0091814.Layout for germinated seeds in 1 Culture
Chamber after 10 days of cultivation (on
Earth). ESA image.