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Results for “PLANT CELLS”

Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 19 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1989

Polarity establishment, morphogenesis, and cultured plant cells in space

Plant development entails an orderly progression of cellular events both in terms of time and geometry. There is only circumstantial evidence that, in the controlled environment of the higher plant embryo sac, gravity may play a role in embryo development. It is still not known whether or not normal embryo development and differentiation in higher plants can be expected to take place reliably and efficiently in the micro g space environment. It seems essential that more attention be given to studying aspects of reproductive biology in order to be confident that plants will survive seed to seed to seed in a space environment. Until the time arrives when successive generations of plants can be grown, the best that can be done is utilize the most appropriate systems and begin, piece meal, to accumulate information on important aspects of plant reproduction. Cultured plant cells can play an important role in these activities since they can be grown so as to be morphogenetically competent, and thus can simulate those embryogenic events more usually identified with fertilized eggs in the embryo sac of the ovule in the ovary. Also, they can be manipulated with relative ease. The extreme plasticity of such demonstrably totipotent cell systems provides a means to test environmental effects such as micro g on a potentially free-running entity. The successful manipulation and management of plant cells and propagules in space also has significance for exploitation of biotechnologies in space since such systems, perforce, are an important vehicle whereby many genetic engineering manipulations are achieved.

Krikorian, Abraham D.↗
NASA NTRS2000

Ball tonometry: a rapid, nondestructive method for measuring cell turgor pressure in thin-walled plant cells

In this article we describe a new method for the determination of turgor pressures in living plant cells. Based on the treatment of growing plant cells as thin-walled pressure vessels, we find that pressures can be accurately determined by observing and measuring the area of the contact patch formed when a spherical glass probe is lowered onto the cell surface with a known force. Within the limits we have described, we can show that the load (determined by precalibration of the device) divided by the projected area of the contact patch (determined by video microscopy) provides a direct, rapid, and accurate measure of the internal turgor pressure of the cell. We demonstrate, by parallel measurements with the pressure probe, that our method yields pressure data that are consistent with those from the pressure probe. Also, by incubating target tissues in stepped concentrations of mannitol to incrementally reduce the turgor pressure, we show that the pressures measured by tonometry accurately reflect the predicted changes from the osmotic potential of the bathing medium. The advantages of this new method over the pressure probe are considerable, however, in that we can move rapidly from cell to cell, taking measurements every 20 s. In addition, the nondestructive nature of the method means that we can return to the same cell repeatedly for periodic pressure measurements. The limitations of the method lie in the fact that it is suitable only for superficial cells that are directly accessible to the probe and to cells that are relatively thin walled and not heavily decorated with surface features. It is also not suitable for measuring pressures in flaccid cells.

NASA Discipline Plant Biology↗
NASA NTRS1993

Wall extensibility: its nature, measurement and relationship to plant cell growth

Expansive growth of plant cells is controlled principally by processes that loosen the wall and enable it to expand irreversibly. The central role of wall relaxation for cell expansion is reviewed. The most common methods for assessing the extension properties of plant cell walls ( wall extensibility') are described, categorized and assessed critically. What emerges are three fundamentally different approaches which test growing cells for their ability (a) to enlarge at different values of turgor, (b) to induce wall relaxation, and (c) to deform elastically or plastically in response to an applied tensile force. Analogous methods with isolated walls are similarly reviewed. The results of these different assays are related to the nature of plant cell growth and pertinent biophysical theory. I argue that the extensibilities' measured by these assays are fundamentally different from one another and that some are more pertinent to growth than others.

Review, Academic↗
NASA NTRS1996

Space stress and genome shock in developing plant cells

In the present paper I review symptoms of stress at the level of the nucleus in cells of plants grown in space under nonoptimized conditions. It remains to be disclosed to what extent gravity "unloading" in the space environment directly contributes to the low mitotic index and the chromosomal anomalies and damage that is frequently, but not invariably, demonstrable in space-grown plants. Evaluation of the available facts indicates that indirect effects play a major role and that there is a significant biological component to the susceptibility to stress damage equation as well. Much remains to be learned on how to provide strictly controlled, optimal environments for plant growth in space. Only after optimized controls become possible will one be able to attribute any observed space effects to lowered gravity or to other significant but more indirect effects of the space environment.

Review, Tutorial↗
NASA NTRS2010

Methods and compositions for regulating gene expression in plant cells

Novel chimeric plant promoter sequences are provided, together with plant gene expression cassettes comprising such sequences. In certain preferred embodiments, the chimeric plant promoters comprise the BoxII cis element and/or derivatives thereof. In addition, novel transcription factors are provided, together with nucleic acid sequences encoding such transcription factors and plant gene expression cassettes comprising such nucleic acid sequences. In certain preferred embodiments, the novel transcription factors comprise the acidic domain, or fragments thereof, of the RF2a transcription factor. Methods for using the chimeric plant promoter sequences and novel transcription factors in regulating the expression of at least one gene of interest are provided, together with transgenic plants comprising such chimeric plant promoter sequences and novel transcription factors.

Beachy, Roger N.↗
NASA NTRS1987

Plant cell technologies in space: Background, strategies and prospects

An attempt is made to summarize work in plant cell technologies in space. The evolution of concepts and the general principles of plant tissue culture are discussed. The potential for production of high value secondary products by plant cells and differentiated tissue in automated, precisely controlled bioreactors is discussed. The general course of the development of the literature on plant tissue culture is highlighted.

Kirkorian, A. D.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Gravity, chromosomes, and organized development in aseptically cultured plant cells

The objectives of the PCR experiment are: to test the hypothesis that microgravity will in fact affect the pattern and developmental progression of embryogenically competent plant cells from one well-defined, critical stage to another; to determine the effects of microgravity in growth and differentiation of embryogenic carrot cells grown in cell culture; to determine whether microgravity or the space environment fosters an instability of the differentiated state; and to determine whether mitosis and chromosome behavior are adversely affected by microgravity. The methods employed will consist of the following: special embryogenically competent carrot cell cultures will be grown in cell culture chambers provided by NASDA; four cell culture chambers will be used to grow cells in liquid medium; two dishes (plant cell culture dishes) will be used to grow cells on a semi-solid agar support; progression to later embryonic stages will be induced in space via crew intervention and by media manipulation in the case of liquid grown cell cultures; progression to later stages in case of semi-solid cultures will not need crew intervention; embryo stages will be fixed at a specific interval (day 6) in flight only in the case of liquid-grown cultures; and some living cells and somatic embryos will be returned for continued post-flight development and 'grown-out.' These will derive from the semi-solid grown cultures.

Krikorian, Abraham D.↗
NASA NTRS1983

Role of Calcium and Calmodulin in Plant Cell Regulation

The role of calcium and calmodulin in plant cell regulation is discussed. Experiments are done to discover the level of calcium in plants and animals. The effect of intracellular calcium on photosynthesis is discussed.

Cormier, M. J.↗
NASA NTRS1997

The endomembrane sheath: a key structure for understanding the plant cell?

Recent evidence suggests that integrin is abundant in endomembranes of plant cells, and the endomembranes are clad by a sheath of cytoskeleton including F-actin. A role for endomembrane integrin and the endomembrane sheath is proposed: this system might orchestrate metabolic regulation by providing and modulating loci for channelling, and might accelerate channeling as needed by dragging the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and organelles through the cytoplasm. To accomplish this "streaming", F-actin might lever against the rest of the endomembrane sheath and the ER might also lever against adhesion sites (i.e., plasmodesmata and plasmalemmal control centers). As an important agent in the control of cellular activities, according to this model, the endomembrane sheath would play a major part in responses to diverse signals and stresses, and under extreme stress cell survival would depend on the ability of the system to maintain enough integrity to direct critical syntheses and degradations.

NASA Discipline Plant Biology↗
NASA NTRS1979

Problems and potentialities of cultured plant cells in retrospect and prospect

The past, present and expected future accomplishments and limitations of plant cell and tissue culture are reviewed. Consideration is given to the pioneering insights of Haberlandt in 1902, the development of culture techniques, and past work on cell division, cell and tissue growth and development, somatic embryogenesis, and metabolism and respiration. Current activity in culture media and technique development for plant regions, organs, tissues, cells, protoplasts, organelles and embryos, totipotency, somatic embryogenesis and clonal propagation under normal and space conditions, biochemical potentialities, and genetic engineering is surveyed. Prospects for the investigation of the induced control of somatic cell division, the division of isolated protoplasts, the improvement of haploid cell cultures, liquid cultures for somatic embryogenesis, and the genetic control of development are outlined.

Steward, F. C.↗
NASA NTRS1999

Development of Gravity Sensitive Plant Cells (Ceratodon) in Microgravity

Protonemata of the moss Ceratodon are tip-growing cells that grow up in the dark. This cell type is unique compared to cells in almost any other organism, since the growth of the plant cell itself is completely oriented by gravity. Thus, both the processes of gravity sensing and the gravity response occur in the same cell. Gravity sensing appears to rely upon amyloplasts (starch-filled plastids) that sediment. This sedimentation occurs in specific zones and plastid zonation is complex with respect to plastid morphology, distribution, and gravity. Microtubules restrict the extent of plastid sedimentation (i.e., they are load-bearing). Light also is important since apical cells have a phytochrome-based positive phototropism, light quality influences plastid zonation and sedimentation (photomorphogenesis), and red light suppresses gravitropism at higher but not lower light intensities. Many of these processes were examined in a 16 day spaceflight experiment, "SPM-A" space moss" or "SPAM)) on STS-87 that landed in December, 1997. The work described here involves the definition of a second flight experiment that builds upon the data and questions arising from STS-87. Effort was directed towards further definition of an experiment for the Shuttle (dubbed "SOS" for "Son of SPAM"). Our current target is STS 107 that is scheduled to fly in January 2001. This definition addressed two goals of the STS107 experiment. The goals of the current experiment were to determine whether the cytoskeleton plays a role in maintaining and generating an apical (non-random) plastid distribution in microgravity and to determine the development and extent of clockwise spiral tip-growth in microgravity.

Sack, Fred D.↗
NASA NTRS1998

Molecular regulation of plant cell wall extensibility

Gravity responses in plants often involve spatial and temporal changes in cell growth, which is regulated primarily by controlling the ability of the cell wall to extend. The wall is thought to be a cellulose-hemicellulose network embedded in a hydrated matrix of complex polysaccharides and a small amount of structural protein. The wall extends by a form of polymer creep, which is mediated by expansins, a novel group of wall-loosening proteins. Expansins were discovered during a molecular dissection of the "acid growth" behavior of cell walls. Expansin alters the rheology of plant walls in profound ways, yet its molecular mechanism of action is still uncertain. It lacks detectable hydrolytic activity against the major components of the wall, but it is able to disrupt noncovalent adhesion between wall polysaccharides. The discovery of a second family of expansins (beta-expansins) sheds light on the biological role of a major group of pollen allergens and implies that expansins have evolved for diverse developmental functions. Finally, the contribution of other processes to wall extensibility is briefly summarized.

Review↗
NASA NTRS1993

How do plant cell walls extend?

This article briefly summarizes recent work that identifies the biophysical and biochemical processes that give rise to the extension of plant cell walls. I begin with the biophysical notion of stress relaxation of the wall and follow with recent studies of wall enzymes thought to catalyze wall extension and relaxation. Readers should refer to detailed reviews for more comprehensive discussion of earlier literature (Taiz, 1984; Carpita and Gibeaut, 1993; Cosgrove, 1993).

Review, Tutorial↗
NASA NTRS1990

Comparative effectiveness of a clinostat and a slow-turning lateral vessel at mimicking the ultrastructural effects of microgravity in plant cells

The object of this research was to determine how effectively the actions of a clinostat and a fluid-filled, slow-turning lateral vessel (STLV) mimic the ultrastructural effects of microgravity in plant cells. We accomplished this by qualitatively and quantitatively comparing the ultrastructures of cells grown on clinostats and in an STLV with those of cells grown at 1 g and in microgravity aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia. Columella cells of Brassica perviridis seedlings grown in microgravity and in an STLV have similar structures. Both contain significantly more lipid bodies, less starch, and fewer dictyosomes than columella cells of seedlings grown at 1 g. Cells of seedlings grown on clinostats have significantly different ultrastructures from those grown in microgravity or in an STLV, indicating that clinostats do not mimic microgravity at the ultrastructural level. The similar structures of columella cells of seedlings grown in an STLV and in microgravity suggest that an STLV effectively mimics microgravity at the ultrastructural level.

STS Shuttle Project↗
NASA NTRS1999

Phosphoinositide kinases and the synthesis of polyphosphoinositides in higher plant cells

Phosphoinositides are a family of inositol-containing phospholipids which are present in all eukaryotic cells. Although in most cells these lipids, with the exception of phosphatidylinositol, constitute only a very minor proportion of total cellular lipids, they have received immense attention by researchers in the past 15-20 years. This is due to the discovery that these lipids, rather than just having structural functions, play key roles in a wide range of important cellular processes. Much less is known about the plant phosphoinositides than about their mammalian counterparts. However, it has been established that a functional phosphoinositide system exists in plant cells and it is becoming increasingly clear that inositol-containing lipids are likely to play many important roles throughout the life of a plant. It is not our intention to give an exhaustive overview of all aspects of the field, but rather we focus on the phosphoinositide kinases responsible for the synthesis of all phosphorylated forms of phosphatidylinositol. Also, we mention some of the aspects of current phosphoinositide research which, in our opinion, are most likely to provide a suitable starting point for further research into the role of phosphoinositides in plants.

Review↗
NASA NTRS1974

Refractive index of plant cell walls

Air was replaced with media of higher refractive indices by vacuum infiltration in leaves of cucumber, blackeye pea, tomato, and string bean plants, and reflectance of noninfiltrated and infiltrated leaves was spectrophotometrically measured. Infiltrated leaves reflected less light than noninfiltrated leaves over the 500-2500-nm wavelength interval because cell wall-air interfaces were partly eliminated. Minimal reflectance should occur when the average refractive index of plant cell walls was matched by the infiltrating fluid. Although refractive indices that resulted in minimal reflectance differed among the four plant genera, an average value of 1.425 approximates the refractive index of plant cell walls for the four plant genera.

Gausman, H. W.↗
NASA NTRS2002

Differential Top10 promoter regulation by six tetracycline analogues in plant cells

The effects of five tetracycline analogues, anhydrotetracycline, doxycycline, minocycline, oxytetracycline, and tetracycline, on Top10 promoter activity in NT1 tobacco tissue culture cells have been analysed. The concentration that repressed Top10 promoter activity, the level of transgene repression and the kinetics of transgene de-repression were determined for each analogue, and could not be predicted from in vitro binding affinity to the tetracycline repressor or from comparison with animal cells. Doxycycline had the most potent effect on the Top10 promoter and completely inhibited transgene expression at 4 nmol l(-1). Tetracycline was the most versatile of the analogues tested; tetracycline inhibited the Top10 promoter at 10 nmol l(-1) and was easily washed out to restore Top10-driven expression in 12-24 h. A study was also made of the suitability for plant research of a novel tetracycline analogue, GR33076X. In animal cells, GR33076X de-repressed Top10 promoter activity in the presence of inhibitory concentrations of anhydrotetracycline. In NT1, it is shown that GR 33076X can antagonize repression of the Top10 promoter in the presence of tetracycline, but not of anhydrotetracycline or of doxycycline. Different tetracycline analogues can therefore be used to regulate the Top10 promoter in plant cells and this property may be exploited in planning an optimum course of transgene regulation.

NASA Discipline Plant Biology↗