Barcenilla Borja Barbero, Kundel Ishan, Hall Emily, Hilty Nicolas, Ulianich Pavel, Cook Jillian, Turley Jake, Yerram Monisha, Min Ji-Hee, Castillo-González Claudia, Shippen Dorothy E
Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, United States.
Front Plant Sci. 2024 Feb 16;15:1351613. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2024.1351613. eCollection 2024.
NASA envisions a future where humans establish a thriving colony on the Moon by 2050. Plants will be essential for this endeavor, but little is known about their adaptation to extraterrestrial bodies. The capacity to grow plants in lunar regolith would represent a major step towards this goal by minimizing the reliance on resources transported from Earth. Recent studies reveal that can germinate and grow on genuine lunar regolith as well as on lunar regolith simulant. However, plants arrest in vegetative development and activate a variety of stress response pathways, most notably the oxidative stress response. Telomeres are hotspots for oxidative damage in the genome and a marker of fitness in many organisms. Here we examine growth on a lunar regolith simulant and the impact of this resource on plant physiology and on telomere dynamics, telomerase enzyme activity and genome oxidation. We report that plants successfully set seed and generate a viable second plant generation if the lunar regolith simulant is pre-washed with an antioxidant cocktail. However, plants sustain a higher degree of genome oxidation and decreased biomass relative to conventional Earth soil cultivation. Moreover, telomerase activity substantially declines and telomeres shorten in plants grown in lunar regolith simulant, implying that genome integrity may not be sustainable over the long-term. Overcoming these challenges will be an important goal in ensuring success on the lunar frontier.
美国国家航空航天局（NASA）设想了一个未来场景，即到2050年人类在月球上建立一个繁荣的殖民地。植物对于这一努力至关重要，但人们对它们适应外星天体的情况知之甚少。在月球风化层中种植植物的能力将是朝着这一目标迈出的重要一步，因为这样可以最大限度地减少对从地球运输资源的依赖。最近的研究表明，[植物名称]能够在真正的月球风化层以及月球风化层模拟物上发芽和生长。然而，植物在营养发育阶段停滞，并激活多种应激反应途径，最显著的是氧化应激反应。端粒是基因组中氧化损伤的热点，也是许多生物体健康状况的一个标志。在这里，我们研究了[植物名称]在月球风化层模拟物上的生长情况，以及这种资源对植物生理、端粒动态、端粒酶活性和基因组氧化的影响。我们报告称，如果用抗氧化剂混合物对月球风化层模拟物进行预冲洗，植物能够成功结籽并产生可存活的第二代植株。然而，与传统的地球土壤种植相比，植物的基因组氧化程度更高，生物量减少。此外，在月球风化层模拟物中生长的植物端粒酶活性大幅下降，端粒缩短，这意味着基因组完整性可能无法长期维持。克服这些挑战将是确保在月球前沿取得成功的一个重要目标。
