No abstract available.
Space Flight*

No abstract available.
Calcium* ; Metabolism* ; Space Flight*

No abstract available.
Humans* ; Space Flight*

The dry seeds of Cassia obtusifolia were carried by the "ShenZhou 8" satellite and sowed after landing. Based on our pri- or study on SP1, the characteristics of plants growth, physiological index and content of effective components were examined. The results showed that the QC10, QC29 strains matured 5 d earlier compared with control. The plant height, across diameter and ground diameter of QC10, QC29, QC46 strains was superior to the control at whole growth period. The branch number increased ranging from 4 to 11 and the number of pods reached 321, 313,281, respectively, which was dramatically higher than the control (246). The yield of QC10, QC29, QC46 strains increased noticeably from 31.4 to 63.2 g. The 1000-seed-weight of QC10, QC29, QC46 strains was 25.86, 25.88, 24.06 g, while the control was 23.69 g. Compared to the control, the mass fraction of chlorophyll was enhanced 1.098, 1.016, 0.297 mg. There was no significant difference in aurantio-obtusin and chrysophanol content of seeds. Through two years research, three high-yield mutant strains were obtained. This study indicates that spaceflight-induced mutants could provide new germplasm for C. obtusifolia breeding and offers the theoretical basis for further utilization of spaceflight-induced mutation to breed high-quality C. obtusifolia strains.
Cassia ; chemistry ; genetics ; growth & development ; Mutation ; Space Flight

Animals ; Exobiology ; methods ; Extraterrestrial Environment ; Genomics ; Humans ; Space Flight

Space breeding in medicinal plants is special characteristics in China. Compared with other plants, in spite of a relatively small number, Medicinal plants have more obvious characteristics and advantages. Research on medicinal plants has also been carried into all aspects, such as biological traits, physiology and biochemistry, genomics, as well as differences in chemical composition, and chemical composition analysis is also involved. However, compared with other plants, especially crops and vegetables, biological research is an obvious deficiency, that is mainly reflected in the insufficient genetics and breeding researches, the stability of genetic traits from generation to generation were not followed up and in-depth study in breeding areas was not carried out. If medicinal plants resources from space with the genetic stability good quality were selected, it would address the problem of lack of resources and ease the pressure on wild resources of medicinal plants. It would at the same time play an important role in promoting the development of medicinal botany space breeding and the implementation of modernization of traditional Chinese medicine.
Breeding ; methods ; Plants, Medicinal ; growth & development ; physiology ; Space Flight ; Weightlessness

The Chinese space station will be built around 2020. As a national space laboratory, it will offer unique opportunities for studying the physiological effects of weightlessness and the efficacy of the countermeasures against such effects. In this paper, we described the development of countermeasure systems in the Chinese space program. To emphasize the need of the Chinese space program to implement its own program for developing countermeasures, we reviewed the literature on the negative physiological effects of weightlessness, the challenges of completing missions, the development of countermeasure devices, the establishment of countermeasure programs, and the efficacy of the countermeasure techniques in American and Russian manned spaceflights. In addition, a brief overview was provided on the Chinese research and development on countermeasures to discuss the current status and goals of the development of countermeasures against physiological problems associated with weightlessness.
China ; Humans ; Program Evaluation ; Space Flight ; Weightlessness ; Weightlessness Simulation

Space flight experiments have suggested that microgravity can affect cellular processes in microorganisms. To simulate the microgravity environment on earth, several models have been developed and applied to examine the effect of microgravity on secondary metabolism. In this paper, studies of effects of space flight on secondary metabolism are exemplified and reviewed along with the advantages and disadvantages of the current models used for simulating microgravity. This discussion is both significant and timely to researchers considering the use of simulated microgravity or space flight to explore effects of weightlessness on secondary metabolism.
Humans ; Metabolism ; physiology ; Models, Theoretical ; Space Flight ; Weightlessness Simulation

The difference of ingredients between the roots from the SP1 plants of Achyranthes Bidentata carried by satellite and the control's were evaluated in this study. The techniques of ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy (UVS), infrared spectroscopy (IR), Xray diffraction (XRD) and SDS-PAGE were used to analyse the chemical constituent in the root of A. bidentata. The results demonstrated that the UVS, IR, XRD and protein fingerprints of the roots from A. bidentata were distinct with special characters. The difference of the IR, XRD and protein fingerprints could be discriminated the satellite plants roots from those of the control, however, there were no difference of the UVS fingerprints between the satellite plants roots and the control. This indicated that the kinds of chemical ingredients were not different between the two groups, but the contents of some chemical ingredients deceased in SP1 plants of A. bidentata carried by satellite.
Achyranthes ; chemistry ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; chemistry ; Plant Roots ; chemistry ; Resins, Plant ; chemistry ; Space Flight

OBJECTIVETo substantiate the effects of spaceflight on the glycyrrhizic acid-related gene mutation in Glycyrrhiza uralensis.

METHODLicorice (G. uralensis) seeds were carried by a recoverable satellite for 18 days (the average radiation dose in the flight recovery module was 0. 102 m x d(-1), the orbit semidiameter 350 km, gravity 10(-6)). After returned to the earth, the satellite-flown seeds and the un-flown seeds (ground control) were planted in the fields of experimental farm. The leaves of each group were used for studying the effects of space flight on the glycyrrhizic acid-related gene mutation including ITS sequence and beta-amyrine synthase gene.

RESULTThe ITS sequence of glycyrrhizic acid related gene showed no changes after spaceflight. While beta-amyrine synthase gene had some different points after spaceflight and the different points could get the expression.

CONCLUSIONThe results indicated that spaceflight induce genetic variation in G. uralensis and spaceflight could also have effects on glycyrrhizic acid-related gene mutation in G. uralensis. It may need to further research how the spaceflight induced the mutation of the glycyrrhizic acid related gene. The results suggested that recoverable satellite-flown condition could bring inheritable mutagenic effects on G. uralensis seeds and maybe used as a tool for accelerating the progress in G. uralensis breeding.

Extraterrestrial Environment ; Glycyrrhiza uralensis ; genetics ; metabolism ; Glycyrrhizic Acid ; metabolism ; Mutation ; Plant Proteins ; genetics ; metabolism ; Space Flight