STS-95 (Discovery, 29 Oct 98 - 07 Nov 98):

Rose Essential Oil Composition & Gene Transfer into Soybeans

WCSAR and its industry partners flew two experimental payloads on the STS-95 space shuttle mission. One of the experiments involved the growth of a miniature rose in the Astroculture (ASC-8) flight unit. The other experiment investigated the transfer of genetic materials into soybean seedlings, using a glove box unit (ASC-GB) specifically designed by WCSAR for this procedure.

Rose Essential Oil Composition

A miniature rose was grown in ASC-8.

The STS-95 plant growth experiment sought to examine the possible effects of microgravity on a flowering plant's production of essential (volatile) oils. Plant essential oils are mixtures of different chemicals and isomers, which together express the plant's organoleptic properties, such as taste and fragrance. In many cases, the isomeric ratio varies as a function of the environment in which the chemical reaction takes place.

While in space, flowers of the miniature rose were chemically sampled 4 separate times. The industry partner for this research, International Flavors and Fragrances, Inc., had pioneered the experimental methodology used, and the sampling mechanism (incorporated into ASC-8) was an element of WCSAR's Astrobotics™ suite of automated sampling and data logging technologies. Upon return to Earth, the samples were analyzed by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS), revealing a significant difference in the composition of secondary compounds synthesized by the space-grown rose. The information obtained is currently being used in a novel fragrance, the perfume "Zen", made by Shiseido in Japan.

Gene Transfer into Soybeans

The gene transfer experiment examined the possible effects of microgravity on an Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated plant transformation. It has been suggested that microgravity may facilitate the transfer of genetic materials due to the near absence of buoyancy effects.

For this project 1000 soybean seedlings were exposed to Agrobacterium that carried a reporter gene. Upon return to Earth, the seedlings were evaluated to assess the effectiveness of the transfer procedure in microgravity, as measured by the expression of the reporter gene (Green Fluorescent Protein). Microgravity increased the transformation rate over 10-fold compared to ground control samples. A modified and improved version of this pilot experiment will be flown on STS-101.

STS-50 - STS-57 - STS-60 - STS-63 - STS-73 - STS-95 - STS-101 - STS-107  /  STS-89/91 - Inc 2 - Inc 4 - Inc 5