On a longer space mission, such as one going to Mars, a genetically modified lettuce might help astronauts stay in shape by preventing bone loss
Astronauts might grow and eat genetically modified plants during long space flights to remain healthy. Researchers at the University of California, Davis College of Engineering have come up with a transgenic lettuce that produces a hormone which prevents bone density loss in microgravity., allowing them to react to injury or changes in exercise, a news release notes.
The research team is appraising the plants to see how much PTH they can produce, which leaves contain the most PTH and when the best time to harvest the leaves would be. Long space flights need to be equipped with supplies of medicines, such as PTH. But conventional medicines would expire during the flight, so astronauts would have to find alternative ways to refresh supplies.By carrying medicines in the form of transgenic plant seeds, astronauts can both save weight and potentially have a new source of fresh drugs, Nandi said.
“We’re now screening all of these lettuce lines to find the one with the highest PTH expression,” said Karen McDonald. “We’ve just looked at a few of them so far, and we observed that the average was 10 to 12 mg/kg, but we think we might be able to increase that further. The higher we can boost the expression, the smaller the amount of lettuce that needs to be consumed.”
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