Japan Takes Cress Seeds Aboard ISS for Mutant Crop Yields

Japanese scientists sent cress seeds to the ISS to grow mutant crops.

On the International Space Station, some of the tiniest life forms are on a quest to feed an overpopulated warming planet while hurtling around the Earth at a speed 20 times faster than the speed of sound.

The International Atomic Energy Agency has tethered sorghum and cress seeds to the spacecraft with the help of a thin metal box. In an effort to create genetic mutations that will help them survive drier soils, hotter temperatures, spreading pestilence, and rising sea levels, this exposes them to more intense solar radiation.

The majority of astrobotany up until this point has been testing how crops can be cultivated to feed astronauts for potential space colonies, according to Shoba Sivasankar, the IAEA's head of genetics and plant breeding. This experiment is distinctive because it aims to aid Earthlings in coping with climate change.

Warming Temperatures vs. Farmers

Rising prices for the main crops used to make bread are putting pressure on political stability as farmers from California, to Argentina, France, and India struggle to maintain yields in the face of global warming. North Africa is experiencing a severe drought, which is reducing local wheat harvests and could increase global demand.

According to recent estimates from the United Nations, the productivity of food has decreased globally since 1961 by almost 13% as a result of rising temperatures and weather disruptions. Over the next ten years, NASA anticipates significant changes in the way food is grown.

Mutant Space Seeds vs. GMO

China accounts for nearly one-fifth of the global population but only 7% of its arable land, according to the Financial Post. The second-largest economy has been launching seeds into space on rockets or even high-altitude balloons for many years.

According to scientists, the space seeds produce wheat, barley, corn, cucumber, and tomato harvests with higher yields. A collaborative mission with Pakistan last year brought back seeds of medicinal plants to the University of Karachi, and the nation is still testing samples from a mission that brought samples from more than 130 species back in 2006.

According to university researcher Wang Yan, there is hope that the seeds will grow more effectively and with greater resistance, survival, and efficacy. This is the first time that cosmic radiation is being used by IAEA to modify or mutate seeds. All of these things are possible through genetic mutation in space. However, it has been using a cobalt-60 source at its laboratory in Seibersdorf for over 50 years to deliver controlled radiation doses.

The sorghum and arabidopsis seeds that were launched 400 kilometers into space atop a Northrop Grumman rocket in November are scheduled to return to the IAEA's labs in April, where they will undergo tests that could take years.

Radiation-induced mutation induction is thought to be natural, in contrast to more recent methods that genetically modify DNA using tools like CRISPR. Therefore, unlike genetically modified organisms, seeds are not subject to the same market limitations, PhysOrg reports.

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Fighting Disease and Hunger

The lab is genuinely altering how people can fight disease and hunger, especially given that food security is a matter of national security, according to Cindy McCain, who is the US ambassador to the UN food agencies located in Rome.

With 870 new varieties currently being grown, rice is the crop that is exposed to radiation the most frequently. The production of the staple food consumed by half the world's population has decreased due to increasingly dry conditions. Vietnam and Indonesia's modified varieties saw a more than 40% increase in yields.

Sivasankar conducts research in a humid greenhouse near Vienna that is populated with banana and coffee plants. Every year, various nations send her hundreds of seeds to be exposed to gamma rays before being grown for arid conditions.

Through controlled mutation, a new variety can develop in about ten years, and business is booming.

She made the point that climate change will have an impact on food production. The most sustainable solution, continued Sivasankar, is to aid plant adaptation to these changes via genetic diversity, The Japan Times reports.