Alfalfa

Alfalfa (Medicago sativa) grown with reduced lignin during preflight testing as part of Dissecting Beneficial Plant-Microbe Interactions and their Efficacy in the ISS Spaceflight Environment, a Model Study (Veg-06). This investigation examines spaceflight’s effects on the interactions between plants and nitrogen-fixing bacteria called rhizobia. A second part to this investigation studies the effects of reduced lignin in a space environment. Lignin is a biopolymer that reinforces plant cell walls thereby enabling plants to grow upward against the forces of gravity. Growing plants with less lignin may be feasible in environments with low gravity and may have the added benefit of biodegrading more readily, thereby facilitating the growth of future generations. Credit: Washington State University.