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Cited by 99Spaceflight effects on biologySpace Science and Extraterrestrial LifeSpace Exploration and Technology

Plants grown in Apollo lunar regolith present stress-associated transcriptomes that inform prospects for lunar exploration

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Paul, Anna-Lisa, Elardo, Stephen M., Ferl, Robert·2022·Communications Biology
DOI 10.1038/s42003-022-03334-8PMC PMC9098553
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Abstract

The extent to which plants can enhance human life support on other worlds depends on the ability of plants to thrive in extraterrestrial environments using in-situ resources. Using samples from Apollo 11, 12, and 17, we show that the terrestrial plant Arabidopsis thaliana germinates and grows in diverse lunar regoliths. However, our results show that growth is challenging; the lunar regolith plants were slow to develop and many showed severe stress morphologies. Moreover, all plants grown in lunar soils differentially expressed genes indicating ionic stresses, similar to plant reactions to salt, metal and reactive oxygen species. Therefore, although in situ lunar regoliths can be useful for plant production in lunar habitats, they are not benign substrates. The interaction between plants and lunar regolith will need to be further elucidated, and likely mitigated, to best enable efficient use of lunar regolith for life support within lunar stations.

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  • Growth rates in regolith simulants tend to be slower and plants often exhibit signs of phenotypic stress.

    “However, growth rates tend to be slower, and plants often exhibit signs of phenotypic stress (Paul et al., 2022), including a decline in telomere dynamics and a loss of sustainable genome integrity (Barcenilla et al., 2024).”

    From Spirulina supported plant growth in regolith simulants and elevated levels of CO2 (2025) · cites this paper as Paul et al., 2022

    In “Plant growth in three sources of lunar regolith” (page not provided), the paper reports that plants in actual Apollo lunar regolith grew more slowly and sometimes showed stress phenotypes. It says the opposite about the JSC-1A simulant: those plants maintained a consistently higher growth rate. The claim reverses which substrate produced the slower, stressed plants. (LLM, conf=0.88)

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Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Paul, A.-L., Elardo, S. M., & Ferl, R.
Affiliations
University of Florida (US)
Corresponding author
  • Paul, Anna-Lisa
  • Ferl, Robert
ORCID
Venue
Communications Biology
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Published
2022-05-12
Volume
5
Issue
1
Pages
382-382
ISSN
2399-3642 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1038/s42003-022-03334-8
PMC
PMC9098553
OpenAlex
W4280502107
Cited by
99
References
4
Citations by year
2026: 26 · 2025: 27 · 2024: 22 · 2023: 19 · 2022: 5
FWCI
11.02
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Communications Biology (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
Funders
  • National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NNX14AT24G, 80NSSC19K0752)
  • University of Florida Office of Research - Retuned IDC of A-LP and RJF
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Spaceflight effects on biology
  • Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Space Science and Extraterrestrial Life
  • Physical Sciences › Engineering › Aerospace Engineering › Space Exploration and Technology
Keywords
lunar regolith, Arabidopsis thaliana, ionic stress, plant germination, in-situ resource utilization, lunar habitats, plant-soil interactions
MeSH terms
Extraterrestrial Environment, Humans, Plants, Soil, Moon, Arabidopsis, Transcriptome

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