Plant science

How plants handle stress in space and what astronauts can learn from them is the subject of a new study at Michigan State University.

Federica Brandizzi, MSU plant biologist, will use a grant from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to shed light on how plants and humans can adapt to handle the stress of long-term space missions.

“I’ve always been fascinated with NASA and space exploration,” Brandizzi said. “Knowing that my research could contribute to the potential of a future with sustainable life in space makes my work quite rewarding.”

Mechanisms that protect plants from freezing are placed in storage during the summer and wisely unpacked when days get shorter.

In the current issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Michael Thomashow, University Distinguished Professor of molecular genetics and director of the MSU-DOE Plant Research Laboratory, demonstrates how the CBF (C-repeat binding factor) cold response pathway is inactive during warmer months when days are long, and how it’s triggered by waning sunlight to prepare plants for freezing temperatures.

You’d be amazed at how much you can learn from a plant.

In a paper published this week in the journal Science, a Michigan State University professor and a colleague discuss why if humans are to survive as a species, we must turn more to plants for any number of valuable lessons.

Although Mother Nature has taken a severe toll on the Michigan tart cherry crop, a bright spot for the industry is growing in a greenhouse on the MSU campus: seedlings that have shown, in three generations so far, resistance to the most costly disease facing Michigan tart cherry growers -- cherry leaf spot.