🤖 AI Summary
月の土壌でジャガイモを育てる実験が報告され、地球の堆肥が必要となることが分かった。オレゴン州立大学のダビデ・ハンディ博士らは、月面に近い成分を持つミネラルと火山灰を使用して月の土壌（月塵）を再現し、その中でジャガイモを育てた。しかし、堆肥を5%加えることで初めて生育が可能となった。DNA解析によりストレス反応遺伝子が活性化しており、ジャガイモには地球で育ったものよりも銅と亜鉛の濃度が高いことが分かった。これらの栄養素は通常と同じレベルであった。この実験結果は「火星での植物栽培」に向けた一歩となる可能性がある。
sciencehabit shares a report from Science.org: In The Martian, fictional astronaut Mark Watney survives the wasteland of Mars by growing potatoes in lunar soil -- with a bit of help from human poop. The idea may not be so far-fetched. In a preprint posted this month on bioRxiv, researchers show potatoes can indeed grow in the equivalent of Moon dust, though they need a lot of help from compost found on Earth. To make the discovery, scientists first had to re-create lunar regolith -- the loose, powdery layer that blankets the Moon's surface. To replicate that in the lab, David Handy, a space biologist at Oregon State University (OSU), and his colleagues used a mix of crushed minerals and volcanic ash that matched the chemistry of the Moon.
But lunar regolith is entirely devoid of the organic matter that plants need to grow. "Turning an inorganic, inhospitable bucket of glorified sand into something that can support plant growth is complex," says Anna-Lisa Paul, a plant molecular biologist at the University of Florida not involved with the work. So Handy and his colleagues added vermicompost -- organic waste from worms -- into the regolith. They found that a mix with 5% compost allowed the potatoes to grow while still emulating the stressful conditions of the lunar environment. After almost 2 months of growth, the team harvested the tubers, freeze-dried them, and ground them up for further testing.
Analysis of the potatoes' DNA showed stress-related genes had been activated. The potatoes also had higher concentrations of copper and zinc than Earth-grown ones, which may make them dangerous for human consumption. The plants' nutritional value, though, was similar to traditional potatoes -- a surprise to the scientists, who expected lower levels of nutrition "because the plants might have been working overtime to overcome certain stressors," Handy says.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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