Plants found to grow in lunar soil
GAINESVILLE: Researchers grew plants in soil — from the moon — for the first time, according to a new study.
Scientists from the University of Florida showed plants can grow in lunar soil, according to a peerreviewed study published this week in the journal Communications Biology.
The researchers used the moon’s soil, also called lunar regolith, to conduct the experiment. They had 12g of soil, the equivalent of a few teaspoons, collected during the Apollo 11, 12 and 17 missions. The material was loaned to the researchers by Nasa.
‘‘Here’s the key finding — plants grow in lunar dirt,’’ Rob Ferl, an assistant vicepresident for research at the University of Florida and one of the coauthors of the study, said.
‘‘That’s just pretty astounding because plants have never been to the moon. Seeds have never adjusted to living up there. There’s no evolutionary reason for us in our hubris to think that plants could grow on lunar soil.’’
Although the research shows plants can grow in lunar soil, ‘‘they don’t like it,’’ AnnaLisa Paul, director of the Interdisciplinary Centre for Biotechnology Research at the University of Florida and another coauthor, said.
‘‘They adjust their metabolisms in order to. Even though they don’t like growing in lunar regolith, they adjust themselves to enable themselves to grow,’’ she said.
‘‘They pull all manner of tools out of their metabolic toolbox.’’
In the seeds planted as controls, the ‘‘roots grew nice and long and straight, and the plants were very robust. The roots from the ones growing in the lunar regolith were not. They were more kinked and distorted,’’ she said.
To plant their ‘‘garden’’, the researchers used thimblesized wells, with each of the wells receiving lunar soil. They then ‘‘moistened the soil with a nutrient solution and added a few seeds from the Arabidopsis plant,’’ the University of Florida said.
The plant is also known as thale cress, which can produce small white flowers and is native to Eurasia and Africa.
‘‘Arabidopsis is widely used in the plant sciences because its genetic code has been fully mapped. Growing Arabidopsis in the lunar soil allowed the researchers more insight into how the soil affected the plants, down to the level of gene expression,’’ the university said.
Stephen Elardo, an assistant professor of geological science at the University of Florida and another coauthor of the study, said ‘‘the moon is not a hospitable place to plants . . . that you . . . still get the plants to grow, as a geologist, I don’t think I would have expected that.’’ — TCA
Lunar gardening . . . The plant species is seen sprouting at a University of Florida laboratory in a small amount of lunar regolith (soil from the moon).