Some karyological observations on plants grown in space

Experiments were conducted to assess whether cell division in a plant root would be affected by prolonged exposure to microgravity. Root materials from sunflower, oat, and mung bean plants grown on STS-2 and STS-3 were utilized for the experiments. It is found that all oat, sunflower, and mung seedlings showed a reduced number of cells in division as they went through their first cell division cycle on earth when compared to their ground controls. A significant number of oat, mung, and sunflower plantlets exhibited random root orientation and the lack of strictly orthotropic growth of their shoot systems in the flight samples. In addition, it is found that the mung roots were apparently least affected in terms of their cytology despite the fact that their roots were often randomly oriented.