Engineering topics

Sack, F.

Publications and source records attributed to Sack, F..

3 records

NASA NTRS1999

[The growth movements of moss protonemata under clinostatic and microgravity conditions]

Populations of dark-grown protonemata of moss Ceratodon purpureus wt-4 (Germany) and wt-U (Ukraine) were rotated on clinostat or flown in space (experiment "Protonema" aboard Bion-11, December 24, 1996-January 7, 1997) to determine the effects of altered gravity on orientation of protonemata growing filaments. Protonemata had been cultivated 8 days in vertical stationary position at dark to be transported to microgravity or placed in clinostat for the period of 14 days. In the ground control, protonemata demonstrated the negatively gravitropic growth (straight upwards in a bundle of compact filaments). The horizontal or circular rotation in clinostat and exposure to microgravity made filaments grow every each way within the substrate plane but with an apparent trend to rightward curling resulting in "spiral galaxies".

NASA Discipline Plant Biology↗

NASA NTRS1985

Amyloplast Sedimentation Kinetics in Corn Roots

Knowledge of the parameters of amyloplast sedimentation is crucial for an evaluation of proposed mechanisms of root graviperception. Early estimates of the rate of root amyloplast sedimentation were as low as 1.2 micron/min which may be too slow for many amyloplasts to reach the vicinity of the new lower wall within the presentation time. On this basis, Haberlandt's classical statolith hypothesis involving amyloplast stimulation of a sensitive surface near the new lower wall was questioned. The aim was to determine the kinetics of amyloplast sedimentation with reference to the presentation time in living and fixed corn rootcap cells as compared with coleoptiles of the same variety.

Leopold, A. C.↗

NASA NTRS1984

Amyloplast movement in living statocytes

Much evidence implicates amyloplast movement in plant graviperception. How this signal is transduced into a differential growth response is not known. Studies using fixed tissue are useful for deriving mean sedimentation rates, but cannot yield data on: the movement of individual amyloplasts, the role of cytoplasmic streaming, and the initial dynamic events occurring during the presentation time. These limitations were overcome by examining living tissue sections with a horizontally mounted microscope connected to a video camera and recorder. The kinetics of the early response to reorientation are consistent with the hypothesis that amyloplasts act by contact with a sensitive surface near the lower wall and indicate that cytoplasmic streaming provides an important vector in amyloplast redistribution in response to gravity.

Leopold, A. C.↗