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

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, expressed genes indicative of ionic stresses, and many showed severe stress morphologies. Therefore, although in situ lunar regolith 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 enable efficient use of lunar regolith for life support.

植物在其他星球上助力人类生命维持系统的效能上限，取决于其能否利用原位资源（in situ resources）在地外环境中茁壮成长。借助阿波罗11号、12号及17号任务带回的样本，我们证实陆生植物拟南芥（Arabidopsis thaliana）可在多种月球风化层（lunar regolith）中萌发并生长。但实验结果同时表明，此类生长过程并非易事：在月球风化层中培育的拟南芥发育迟缓，表达出与离子胁迫相关的基因，且多数植株呈现出严重的胁迫形态学特征。因此，尽管原位月球风化层可用于月球栖息地的植物种植，但它们并非适宜的良性生长基质。若要高效利用月球风化层开展生命维持相关的植物生产，我们需要进一步阐明植物与月球风化层之间的相互作用机制，并针对性采取缓解措施。