Turkish agriculture goes extraterrestrial – The Unconventional Gardener

Header picture: Turkey from house. Picture credit score: NASA Seen Earth.

On 27 September 2024, China launched Shijian-19 – the nation’s first recoverable and reusable satellite tv for pc – into house. It carried plant seeds for house breeding experiments, from China, Thailand, Pakistan and Turkey (Türkiye).

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Shijian-19: An area breeding satellite tv for pc

Seeds launched on Shijian-19. The English caption reads: “Area breeding. Shijian-19 carried rice, wheat, corn, soybean and different staple grains, greens, bushes, fruit bushes, flowers, grasses, fiber crops, oil crops, sugar crops, medicinal crops, power crops, and different plant supplies. It performs an essential function within the innovation of germplasm assets.” One of many logos on the blue field belongs to the Iranian Area Company. Picture credit score: Hurriyet Day by day Information.

This was Turkey’s first house breeding undertaking, however not its first astrobotany experiments (which launched to the ISS on AX-3 in January 2024). The Shijian mission included two Turkish research – “Gene Discovery for ER Stress Tolerance in Arabidopsis thaliana by Using Area Atmosphere” and “Area Breeding to Enhance Drought Stress Tolerance in Chickpea”, led by Dr Rengin Ozgur Uzilday and Dr Barış Uzilday from Ege College.

Area breeding is “particularly useful for growing new plant varieties which can be immune to environmental stresses and ailments whereas providing greater yield or dietary worth. It represents an essential software for addressing agricultural challenges and enhancing meals safety,” Barış Uzilday mentioned. “By leveraging mutation breeding, we goal to develop chickpeas varieties able to thriving below the more and more extreme drought situations caused by local weather change.”

The chickpea experiment used “Sarı-98”, a extensively cultivated selection in Turkey. After spending two weeks in orbit, the space-flown seeds have been returned to Ege College for evaluation.

Planting tomatoes on Mars

Ege College Rector Prof Necdet Budak (2nd proper) with Dr Rengin Ozgur Uzilday (proper), Dr Baris Uzilday (left) and Dr Tansel Kaygisiz Asciogul (2nd left). Picture credit score: Ege College/ Turkiye In the present day.

The analysis workforce are additionally engaged on a extra formidable undertaking, to develop tomatoes on the Moon and Mars. It’s referred to as “Bettering Lunar and Martian Regolith Simulants for Agriculture Utilizing Extremophilic Pioneer Vegetation and Investigating Stress-Response Signaling Pathways in Vegetation Grown on Regolith Simulants”.

By rising tomatoes in regolith simulants, the scientists hope to uncover the important thing signalling pathways associated to nutrient deficiencies. The goal is to make it simpler to develop crops in extraterrestrial soils, specializing in figuring out the molecular mechanisms that permit crops to outlive and thrive in excessive situations.

References:

Türkiye launches 1st house breeding experiment to deal with local weather challenges, Hurriyet Day by day Information, 2 December 2024.

Turkish scientists goal to develop tomatoes on the Moon, Mars, Türkiye In the present day, 26 December 2024.

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