Remote automated multi-generational growth and observation of an animal in low Earth orbit

Oczypok, Elizabeth A., Etheridge, Timothy, Freeman, Jacob, Stodieck, Louis, Johnsen, Robert, Baillie, David and Szewczyk, Nathaniel J. (2012) Remote automated multi-generational growth and observation of an animal in low Earth orbit. Journal of the Royal Society Interface, 9 (68). pp. 596-599. ISSN 1742-5689

Full text not available from this repository.

Abstract

The ultimate survival of humanity is dependent upon colonization of other planetary bodies. Key challenges to such habitation are (patho)physiologic changes induced by known, and unknown, factors associated with long-duration and distance space exploration. However, we currently lack biological models for detecting and studying these changes. Here, we use a remote automated culture system to successfully grow an animal in low Earth orbit for six months. Our observations, over 12 generations, demonstrate that the multi-cellular soil worm Caenorhabditis elegans develops from egg to adulthood and produces progeny with identical timings in space as on the Earth. Additionally, these animals display normal rates of movement when fully fed, comparable declines in movement when starved, and appropriate growth arrest upon starvation and recovery upon re-feeding. These observations establish C. elegans as a biological model that can be used to detect changes in animal growth, development, reproduction and behaviour in response to environmental conditions during long-duration spaceflight. This experimental system is ready to be incorporated on future, unmanned interplanetary missions and could be used to study cost-effectively the effects of such missions on these biological processes and the efficacy of new life support systems and radiation shielding technologies.

Item Type: Article
RIS ID: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/709794
Keywords: Caenorhabditis elegans, Spaceflight, Astrobiology, Interplanetary transfer
Schools/Departments: University of Nottingham, UK > Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > School of Medicine > Division of Medical Sciences and Graduate Entry Medicine
Identification Number: https://doi.org/10.1098/​rsif.2011.0716
Depositing User: Chamberlain, Mr Dick
Date Deposited: 06 May 2014 12:04
Last Modified: 04 May 2020 16:32
URI: https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/id/eprint/3077

Actions (Archive Staff Only)

Edit View Edit View