• Question: What is the seed that will most likely grow best in space? Could any Mutations occur to Further that growth?

    Asked by Barney to Anne, Beth, COLFlight, Jon, Tom on 6 Oct 2015. This question was also asked by Padfoot, curlygirl, Random pixel addict, PreciousPandaHannah, 934trn27, Aaron_Oliver.
    • Photo: Anne Visscher

      Anne Visscher answered on 6 Oct 2015:

      Hello Everyone,

      It really depends on what you mean by ‘space’!
      If you take seeds straight from Earth to the International Space Station, and, once there, put them in a growth chamber where they get enough water, light and nutrients to germinate and grow, then almost any seed can grow well in space.
      On the other hand, if you want to grow plants in the surface materials on another planet, such as for example Mars, where they have found high amounts of salts such as magnesium, then some plants might get stressed. In that case, it would be best to grow seeds from plants that have already evolved (through random mutations and natural selection) to deal with that situation, such as plants on Earth that grow naturally on serpentine soils, which have high levels of magnesium and low levels of calcium.

      Anne

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