“When NASA’s SpaceX Dragon rocket launches into space on Jan. 6, plants that are part of a research project between Southern Illinois University Edwardsville and Ohio University will be on board. The experiment will test how plants respond to gravity,” reports the St. Louis Business Journal on Dec . 19.
The story also was run by media outlets across the country.
The Belleville News-Democrat also reported on “SIUE, Ohio University working on gravity research,” a project by Dr. Sarah Wyatt, Professor of Environmental & Plant Biology at Ohio University, and Dr. Darron Luesse of SIUE.
SIUE and Ohio University are working in collaboration on a project that focuses on how plants sense gravity and how they respond to growing without it.
“I want to know how plants sense the environment around them, and then I want to know what they do with that information to change how they grow,” Darron Luesse, associate professor of biological science.
The experiment will observe the plants’ response on a cellular level by examining which proteins they choose to produce in space, compared to plants on Earth. Luesse said it’s an analysis never before conducted on space-grown samples.
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