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Texas A&M researchers are sending hundreds of grape seeds to the International Space Station for a six-month mission to study how exposure to cosmic radiation affects their growth and genetic expression after returning to Earth.<\/p>\n
Researchers say the findings may support the development of new grape varieties while advancing knowledge about growing crops during long-term space missions.<\/p>\n
After returning to Earth, the study’s seeds will be planted alongside control seeds, with researchers hoping to harvest fruit \u2014 and potentially produce wine from the vines \u2014 within four to five years.<\/p>\n
Researchers at Texas A&M AgriLife<\/a> are sending hundreds of grape seeds to the International Space Station (ISS) to study how cosmic radiation affects their growth \u2014 research that could one day produce new grape varieties and inform how crops are grown during future space missions.\u00a0<\/p>\n The seeds will spend six months aboard the ISS before returning to Earth to be planted. Researchers hope to eventually harvest fruit \u2014 and perhaps even produce wine \u2014 from the resulting vines.<\/p>\n The future of farming in space<\/p>\n The experiment is part of Texas A&M’s Aegis Aerospace Multi-Use Space Platform Integrating Research and Innovative Technology (TAMU-SPIRIT), a research initiative designed to serve as a “satellite campus in space.” Researchers say this experiment will help them better understand the impacts of radiation on food grown in space \u2014 research we will need if and when humanity wants to spend more time off planet Earth.<\/p>\n “Horticulture’s role in space exploration \u2014 whether for producing food or oxygen or contributing to an astronaut’s overall wellness \u2014 sparks the imagination,” Amit Dhingra, a professor of integrated systems genomics and translational biotechnology, shared in a statement<\/a>. “Plants will be a necessity, and that is exciting for us.”<\/p>\n Related: Scientists Are Trying to Grow Mushrooms in Space \u2014 Here’s Why That Matters<\/a><\/p>\n “This project connects the past and the future of horticultural sciences, and how our research can impact growers here and now but also help humanity reach for the stars \u2014 and establish roots there, too.”<\/p>\n Protecting the seeds in orbit required its own engineering challenge: Exposed to too much radiation, the seeds might not germinate. Exposed to too little, the desired genetic mutations might not occur. Coby Arnold and Arvind Subramanyam, students in the Texas A&M Department of Aerospace Engineering, worked with AgriLife Extension viticulture specialist and associate professor Justin Scheiner to solve the problem, designing a carrier that will let in the right amount of radiation exposure.<\/p>\n Tried-and-true Texas seeds<\/p>\n The research team chose three grape varieties with deep Texas roots. Among them is Lomanto<\/a>, a Texas cultivar developed by horticulturist T.V. Munson in the early 1900s. Munson is widely credited with helping save<\/a> the global wine industry by developing disease-resistant rootstock that helped vineyards recover from the phylloxera epidemic.\u00a0<\/p>\n “These grape varieties are tried-and-true for Texas,” Scheiner said in the same university statement. “From a research standpoint, we want to see how being in space might influence these varieties. For the wine geek in me, it would be very interesting if these seeds show some random positive mutation has occurred that represents the single point of origin for a new variety.”<\/p>\n