Treatment with RNAi works as effectively in microgravity as on Earth within multiple tissues,
suggesting RNAi may provide an effective tool for combating spaceflight-induced pathologies
aboard future long-duration space missions. Furthermore, this is the first demonstration that
RNAi can be utilized to block muscle protein degradation, both on Earth and in space. Scientists
are now attempting to analyze the effect of microgravity on the C. elegans muscular cells using
transcriptome and proteome analyses (Etheridge [b] 2011).
PUBLICATION(S)
Etheridge T, Nemoto K, Hashizume T, et al. The effectiveness of RNAi in Caenorhabditis elegans
is maintained during spaceflight. PLOS ONE. 2011;6(6): e20459.
Etheridge T, Nemoto K, Hashizume T, et al. The next phase of life-sciences spaceflight research:
harnessing the power of functional genomics. Communicative & Integrative Biology. 2011;4:6,
1-2.
This investigation is complete; however additional results are pending publication.