How may I help you?

Professor Robert J. Ferl, ROB FERL: University of Florida, USA: http://hos.ufl.edu/faculty/rjferl

I am working on sorghum bicolor, sorghum halepense, and hybrids therefrom under water-limited environment. Breeding strategies I am applying include but are not limited to (1) whole genome genotyping + phenotyping + genomic prediction of a variety of genetic merits, (2) linkage analysis, (3) linkage disequilibrium approach. Please let me know if the hands-on m the above can be of any help for you.

Check out Simon Gilroy from university of Wisconsin Madison http://www.botany.wisc.edu/gilroy/

A good link, Thomas. But some of the listed research topics (e.g., on abiotic stresses, growth regulation) were already handled (some studies tracing back more than five decades ago). And of course the studies at cellular level implies we still are at the fundamental level, meaning that field derived knowledge has still to come, hopefully within a reasonable time frame. Many thanks! 

I graduated (PhD) from University of Wisconsin-Madison. It is a very good research university. I remember the University has a Space-related center, which offers space study. Long time ago, I heard that some labs in campus had sent plant samples to space for study by Space Shuttles, through the collaboration with this center. But the lab I was in did not involve in plant-in-space study. So, I did not have a chance to know this Center well. You should contact them, if you are interested.

I just went online to check. They do have this space-related center called SSEC (http://www.ssec.wisc.edu/overview/):

This is what the site says:

"Approximately 40 graduate and undergraduate students are integrated into the SSEC project teams. While SSEC supports the research activities of graduate students enrolled in degree-granting programs, SSEC does not grant degrees."

As Jason mentioned above, probably Dr. Gilroy is a good person to contact as the start point, if you are interested in UW-Madison's program. I bet that he has some kinds of connections with the center (SSEC).

Thank you very much everyone! I will check all the possibilities you gave me!

Dear Elisa,

I forgot to tell you that in Brazil exist the Brazilian Institute of Space Research (INPE) See http://www.inpe.br

Also, you can contact these institutions for more info on local space research projects:

Earth System Science Center (CCST), National Institute for Space Research (INPE), Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MCTI), São José dos Campos, SP, Brazil

Research and Postgraduate Coordination, Emilio Goeldi Museum of Pará (MPEG), Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MCTI), Belém, PA, Brazil

Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (EMBRAPA), Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Food Supply (MAPA), Brasília, DF, Brazil

Center for Environmental Studies and Research (NEPAM), State University of Campinas (UNICAMP), Cidade Universitária Zeferino Vaz, Campinas, SP, Brazil

Amazon Regional Center (CRA), Brazilian Institute for Space Research (INPE), Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MCTI), Parque de Ciência e Tecnologia do Guamá, Belém, PA, Brazil

Tropical Ecosystems and Environmental Sciences Group (TREES), Remote Sensing Division, Brazilian Institute for Space Research (INPE), Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MCTI), São José dos Campos, SP, Brazil

Higher Education Improvement Coordination (CAPES), Ministry of Education, Brasília, DF, Brazil

I am pretty sure, this is a good starting point for you.

BR,

@  Elisa Ribeiro Miranda Antunes,

Personally, I am interested to know the movement of those mobile genetic elements (such as Transposon Element). Whether their movement frequency in the genome change? more? or less? I don't know any research group has looked into it.

great idea and interest, at the time I heard about the plant life on space the first thing that stroke my mind was to apply neural network to predict how crops would be there...I'm so much enthusiastic too, but unfortunately the fact that I've faced some sort of lack of experts in neural network realm and lack of expertise in some kind of modeling program the way to onset the study couldn't be paved.......I wish to have an opportunity to go after researchers whom they carry out such researches in future. 

Wish you luck

Aida

Elisa,

Anne Visscher from Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew is currently involved in a project with the European Space Agency, if this is of your interest:

https://www.kew.org/blogs/kew-science/extreme-survival-seeds-earth-and-space

Daniel

That's an interesting and ambitious project, indeed. I like the idea of seed banks in space as a means to avoid potential catastrophic events on Earth. God Forbid. Now an idea that comes to mind is some ionizing agents in space can hurt/alter the genetic make-up of crop species "flying" in there, giving rise to genetic mutations. And history tells us useful mutations are not too frequent. We will need a good team of geneticists and breeders in the process "Spatial Domestication".

Check out University of Guelph's Dr. Mike Dixon.

For Dr Yuan-Yeu Yau's interest in transposon elements, the following papers may be useful

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26281766

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/224870961_Ionising_irradiation_alters_the_dynamics_of_human_long_interspersed_nuclear_elements_1_LINE1_retrotransposon

Article Ionising irradiation alters the dynamics of human long inter...

And here again the Central Dogma of Molecular Biology comes in. With ionizing agents, radiochemical damage can occur either by direct action or indirect action. Direct action occurs when ionizing particles create ions which physically break one or both of the sugar phosphate backbones or break the base pairs of the DNA. DNA ionization can create mutation(s), and mutation(s) can be harmful. Hopefully, living cells evolved both a mechanism to repair the radiation damage to DNA if it is determined repairable, as well as a process of apoptosis, when the situation is deemed unrepairable. Apoptosis or programmed cell death is operated to avoid mutation(s) and possibly cancer causing mutation(s). On the other hand, living cells can temporarily halt their progression through the cell cycle to buy sometime to repair damages inflicted by ionizing agents. 

As an aside, you will remember that non deleterious mutation has the potential to go "viral" in virtue of genetic inheritance.  

Dear Dr.  Nobuyuki Hamada,

Thanks for your attached paper. Interesting to know that. The radiation in the Space might cause frequent movement of some specific transposon elements in human's body. Cannot a Spacesuit prevent that??

My pleasure, Dr Yuan-Yeu Yau. Also, thank you for your feedback.

The dose inside the International Space Station (ISS) is about 0.5–1 mSv/day depending on the solar activity. First, this is much higher than the background ionizing radiation dose received on Earth (the world average is 2.4 mSv/year), although the dose in some high natural background areas is higher than the dose received inside the ISS. Second, the dose received on Earth is most due to sparsely ionizing radiation (low linear energy transfer, low LET) like photons (e.g., gamma-rays), but densely ionizing radiation (high-LET radiation) like neutrons and heavy ions (e.g., iron) contributes to the dose received in Space. For health risks to astronauts, the effects of space radiation to the lens (cataract), circulatory system (e.g., cardio- and cerebrovascular disease) and brain (e.g., cognitive) are of concern in addition to cancer; however, we do not have so much knowledge (especially on risks due to high-LET radiation).

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/306364780_No_evidence_for_an_increase_in_circulatory_disease_mortality_in_astronauts_following_space_radiation_exposures

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/307560584_Cataractogenesis_following_high-LET_radiation_exposure

Article No evidence for an increase in circulatory disease mortality...

Article Cataractogenesis following high-LET radiation exposure

For retrotransposition, significant changes were observed in vitro at ≥5 Gy of X-rays (low-LET) and ≥2 Gy of carbon ions (high-LET). The dose in ISS does not reach this level unless astronauts stay inside the ISS for decades.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/224870961_Ionising_irradiation_alters_the_dynamics_of_human_long_interspersed_nuclear_elements_1_LINE1_retrotransposon

Article Ionising irradiation alters the dynamics of human long inter...

Spacesuits are not specifically designed to provide significant protection from exposures to ionizing radiation in contrast to the case for UV exposures. For more discussion, you may be interested in the following paper

https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/20060046504.pdf