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Microbiological and Nutritional Analysis of Lettuce Crops Grown on the International Space Station

The ability to grow safe, fresh food to supplement packaged foods of astronauts in space has been an important goal for NASA. Food crops grown in space experience different environmental conditions than plants grown on Earth (e.g., reduced gravity, elevated radiation levels). To study the effects of...

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Autores principales: Khodadad, Christina L. M., Hummerick, Mary E., Spencer, LaShelle E., Dixit, Anirudha R., Richards, Jeffrey T., Romeyn, Matthew W., Smith, Trent M., Wheeler, Raymond M., Massa, Gioia D.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7067979/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32210992
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2020.00199
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author Khodadad, Christina L. M.
Hummerick, Mary E.
Spencer, LaShelle E.
Dixit, Anirudha R.
Richards, Jeffrey T.
Romeyn, Matthew W.
Smith, Trent M.
Wheeler, Raymond M.
Massa, Gioia D.
author_facet Khodadad, Christina L. M.
Hummerick, Mary E.
Spencer, LaShelle E.
Dixit, Anirudha R.
Richards, Jeffrey T.
Romeyn, Matthew W.
Smith, Trent M.
Wheeler, Raymond M.
Massa, Gioia D.
author_sort Khodadad, Christina L. M.
collection PubMed
description The ability to grow safe, fresh food to supplement packaged foods of astronauts in space has been an important goal for NASA. Food crops grown in space experience different environmental conditions than plants grown on Earth (e.g., reduced gravity, elevated radiation levels). To study the effects of space conditions, red romaine lettuce, Lactuca sativa cv ‘Outredgeous,’ plants were grown in Veggie plant growth chambers on the International Space Station (ISS) and compared with ground-grown plants. Multiple plantings were grown on ISS and harvested using either a single, final harvest, or sequential harvests in which several mature leaves were removed from the plants at weekly intervals. Ground controls were grown simultaneously with a 24–72 h delay using ISS environmental data. Food safety of the plants was determined by heterotrophic plate counts for bacteria and fungi, as well as isolate identification using samples taken from the leaves and roots. Molecular characterization was conducted using Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) to provide taxonomic composition and phylogenetic structure of the community. Leaves were also analyzed for elemental composition, as well as levels of phenolics, anthocyanins, and Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity (ORAC). Comparison of flight and ground tissues showed some differences in total counts for bacteria and yeast/molds (2.14 – 4.86 log(10) CFU/g), while screening for select human pathogens yielded negative results. Bacterial and fungal isolate identification and community characterization indicated variation in the diversity of genera between leaf and root tissue with diversity being higher in root tissue, and included differences in the dominant genera. The only difference between ground and flight experiments was seen in the third experiment, VEG-03A, with significant differences in the genera from leaf tissue. Flight and ground tissue showed differences in Fe, K, Na, P, S, and Zn content and total phenolic levels, but no differences in anthocyanin and ORAC levels. This study indicated that leafy vegetable crops can produce safe, edible, fresh food to supplement to the astronauts’ diet, and provide baseline data for continual operation of the Veggie plant growth units on ISS.
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spelling pubmed-70679792020-03-24 Microbiological and Nutritional Analysis of Lettuce Crops Grown on the International Space Station Khodadad, Christina L. M. Hummerick, Mary E. Spencer, LaShelle E. Dixit, Anirudha R. Richards, Jeffrey T. Romeyn, Matthew W. Smith, Trent M. Wheeler, Raymond M. Massa, Gioia D. Front Plant Sci Plant Science The ability to grow safe, fresh food to supplement packaged foods of astronauts in space has been an important goal for NASA. Food crops grown in space experience different environmental conditions than plants grown on Earth (e.g., reduced gravity, elevated radiation levels). To study the effects of space conditions, red romaine lettuce, Lactuca sativa cv ‘Outredgeous,’ plants were grown in Veggie plant growth chambers on the International Space Station (ISS) and compared with ground-grown plants. Multiple plantings were grown on ISS and harvested using either a single, final harvest, or sequential harvests in which several mature leaves were removed from the plants at weekly intervals. Ground controls were grown simultaneously with a 24–72 h delay using ISS environmental data. Food safety of the plants was determined by heterotrophic plate counts for bacteria and fungi, as well as isolate identification using samples taken from the leaves and roots. Molecular characterization was conducted using Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) to provide taxonomic composition and phylogenetic structure of the community. Leaves were also analyzed for elemental composition, as well as levels of phenolics, anthocyanins, and Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity (ORAC). Comparison of flight and ground tissues showed some differences in total counts for bacteria and yeast/molds (2.14 – 4.86 log(10) CFU/g), while screening for select human pathogens yielded negative results. Bacterial and fungal isolate identification and community characterization indicated variation in the diversity of genera between leaf and root tissue with diversity being higher in root tissue, and included differences in the dominant genera. The only difference between ground and flight experiments was seen in the third experiment, VEG-03A, with significant differences in the genera from leaf tissue. Flight and ground tissue showed differences in Fe, K, Na, P, S, and Zn content and total phenolic levels, but no differences in anthocyanin and ORAC levels. This study indicated that leafy vegetable crops can produce safe, edible, fresh food to supplement to the astronauts’ diet, and provide baseline data for continual operation of the Veggie plant growth units on ISS. Frontiers Media S.A. 2020-03-06 /pmc/articles/PMC7067979/ /pubmed/32210992 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2020.00199 Text en Copyright © 2020 Khodadad, Hummerick, Spencer, Dixit, Richards, Romeyn, Smith, Wheeler and Massa. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Plant Science
Khodadad, Christina L. M.
Hummerick, Mary E.
Spencer, LaShelle E.
Dixit, Anirudha R.
Richards, Jeffrey T.
Romeyn, Matthew W.
Smith, Trent M.
Wheeler, Raymond M.
Massa, Gioia D.
Microbiological and Nutritional Analysis of Lettuce Crops Grown on the International Space Station
title Microbiological and Nutritional Analysis of Lettuce Crops Grown on the International Space Station
title_full Microbiological and Nutritional Analysis of Lettuce Crops Grown on the International Space Station
title_fullStr Microbiological and Nutritional Analysis of Lettuce Crops Grown on the International Space Station
title_full_unstemmed Microbiological and Nutritional Analysis of Lettuce Crops Grown on the International Space Station
title_short Microbiological and Nutritional Analysis of Lettuce Crops Grown on the International Space Station
title_sort microbiological and nutritional analysis of lettuce crops grown on the international space station
topic Plant Science
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7067979/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32210992
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2020.00199
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