Brown AH, Chapman DK, Heathcote DG, Johnsson A.
ASGSB Bull. 1993 Oct; 7: 37.
Gravitational Plant Physiology Laboratory, UCSC, Philadelphia, PA.
Data derived from experiments flown using the Gravitational Plant Physiology Facility on IML-1 provided new opportunities for comparisons between plant behavioral responses during tests on clinostats and those observed in space. Results from two different comparisons made of autotropism seen under these two conditions are presented. Data are also provided from six data comparisons between orbital and clinostat-simulated weightlessness made during tests of plant responsiveness to tropistic stimulations. Of the total of eight comparisons, four showed that clinorotation did produce the same effect as space flight; the other four showed very large differences between the two conditions. If we restrict the comparison to the results of two tests in which the stage of plant development was not a variable, one data set showed a statistically significant difference; the other did not. From these results, the question of the validity of clinorotation as a simulator for microgravity can not be given a decisive yes or no answer. There does not appear to be any detectable pattern in the data that might allow predictions of the conditions under which the clinostat is, or is not, an adequate simulator of microgravity. Clinorotation experiments on earth may at least serve as a guide for what a plant's behavior may be in weightlessness, but the slow rotating clinostat cannot be described as a dependable substitute for tests in space.
Publication Types:
Keywords:
- Plant Physiology
- Plants
- Rotation
- Space Flight
- Weightlessness
- Weightlessness Simulation
- NASA Discipline Number 00-00
- NASA Discipline Plant Biology
- NASA Program Flight
- Non-NASA Center
Other ID:
UI: 102212848
From Meeting Abstracts