Spaceflight adaptation requires organ specific alterations in the proteomes of Arabidopsis

This experiment was launched on STS-129 in 2009 and was supported by NASA grant NNX07AH27G - Transgenic Plant Biomonitors of Space Flight Exposure to R.J. Ferl and A-L. Paul.

Life in spaceflight demonstrates remarkable adaptive processes within the specialized environments of space vehicles which are subject to the myriad of attending and unique environmental issues associated with orbital trajectories. To examine the adaptive processes that occur in plants in space, leaves and roots from Arabidopsis seedlings that were grown from seed for 12 days on the International Space Station and preserved on orbit in RNAlater were returned to earth and analyzed using iTRAQ broad scale proteomics procedures.