iss068e041971

iss068e041971 (1/26/2023) --- Three-week-old Thale cress plants from the Plant Habitat-03 (PH-03) investigation are seen just before a harvest aboard the International Space Station. One leaf was harvested from each of the 48 plants and then preserved before being sent back to Earth for further analysis. The samples are critical to PH-03 as the preserved leaves allow for the transcriptome (gene expression) and methylome (epigenetic modifications) analyses. PH-03 aims to discover whether genetic changes persist through multiple plant generations, a first step in developing plants better suited for future space exploration.