SPACE FARMING: IAEA/FAO Collaboration Brings Back Crop Seeds From Space To Help Feed Growing Global Population

In a noteworthy achievement of the collaborative endeavors between the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), seeds that were dispatched into space last year have now made their way back to Earth. This initiative aims to cultivate sturdy crops that can withstand the adverse impacts of global warming and fulfill the escalating demand for food.

Plants have a natural ability to adapt to their surroundings, but the current pace of climate change has made it challenging for crops to keep up. With the world getting warmer and the global population increasing, farmers are struggling to meet the growing demand for food. To address this issue and support farmers, the Joint FAO/IAEA Centre of Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture has sent seeds into space to explore the effects of cosmic radiation on accelerating the natural genetic adaptation of essential crops. Now that the seeds have returned to Earth, scientists can begin to analyze the results and pave the way for further research.

On November 7, 2022, NASA launched Arabidopsis and Sorghum seeds from its Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, USA. These seeds were chosen because there is already a significant amount of scientific data available for comparison purposes. After spending roughly five months at the International Space Station (ISS), they were released from the SpaceX CRS-27 cargo craft at 17:05 CEST on April 15 and made a parachute-assisted splashdown off the coast of Florida, CA, USA, at 22:58 CEST. The seeds will now start their journey back to the laboratories of the Joint FAO/IAEA Centre in Seibersdorf, Austria, where scientists will screen and analyze them for desirable traits.

“The cosmic crops project is a very special one. This is a science that could have a real impact on people’s lives in the not-too-distant future, by helping us grow stronger crops and feed more people,” said IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi. “IAEA and FAO scientists may have already been mutating seeds by radiation for 60 years and creating thousands of stronger crops for the world to use, but this is the first time we have experimented with such an exciting field as astrobiology.”

“Now that the seeds are back on Earth, we can see the effects of cosmic radiation, microgravity, and extreme temperatures and compare them with those induced in our joint laboratories. This ground-breaking experiment can help develop crops that can adapt to climate change and boost global food security,” said FAO Director-General Qu Dongyu.

Before reaching the laboratories, the seeds will go through a standard phytosanitary import process, which is mandatory for transporting plant material across national borders. The aim is to minimize the risk of introducing new pests.

In laboratories, radiation is typically utilized through machines that utilize gamma or X-rays, thereby accelerating the process of genetic variation. Scientists then examine the irradiated seeds for favorable characteristics and incorporate these traits into future generations, resulting in the faster evolution of plants with desirable attributes such as disease resistance and drought tolerance.

The wide range and intense radiation found in space, combined with other extreme conditions such as microgravity and temperature, may trigger genetic changes that are not typically observed with radiation sources on Earth.

“This is the first feasibility study of the FAO and IAEA to determine the effect of cosmic radiation, microgravity, and extreme temperatures on plant genome and biology, towards generating sufficient genetic variation for enhanced adaptation to climate change,” said Shoba Sivasankar, Section Head of Plant Breeding and Genetics at the Joint FAO/IAEA Centre.

The research team plans to conduct experiments on Arabidopsis and sorghum seeds to test their resilience to drought, salt, and heat, as well as desirable traits for climate change adaptation. Arabidopsis is a fast-growing, cost-effective type of cress that produces many seeds, while sorghum is a cereal grain that can grow in arid areas and is resilient to climate change. The seeds will be grown for the next generation before selecting the traits. The Arabidopsis plants are expected to yield initial results by October 2023, depending on when they arrive at the Seibersdorf laboratories.

During the experiment, the researchers will extract and sequence DNA from the seeds that were irradiated in the lab, those positioned inside the International Space Station (ISS), and those positioned outside the ISS that received full exposure to cosmic radiation, microgravity, and extreme temperatures. By comparing the changes between these different sets of seeds, as well as conducting comparative analyses of plant biology, the researchers hope to gain insights into whether the harsh conditions of space have a unique, valuable effect on crop improvement. Ultimately, the research could have significant benefits for people on Earth.

-International Atomic Energy Agency

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