Appendix D: Elucidation of stress resilience of sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam) on Mars-like soil

Elucidation of stress resilience of sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam) for Mars-regolith. PROJECT SUMMARY The recent advancement in space science and technology is one of the primary drivers of human exploration and exploitation of Mars. Several international space agencies have announced a crewed exploration of Mars in the near future. The innate ability of plants to consume carbon dioxide and release oxygen and recycle organic waste and water attributes them as a plausible part of a bio-regenerative life-support system for human life and facilitate the colonization of the red planet. However, plants will encounter hostile Martian environments and suffer severe abiotic stress-induced by several factors, including low-gravity, high radiations, high CO2 and low oxygen levels, low temperature, limited sunlight, and mainly unfavorable soil properties to support the plant life. The Martian soil contains mostly lots of minerals and chlorine in the form of perchlorates. Chlorine is toxic to plants directly affects plant growth and development. Moreover, the produce on the Mars soil will not be edible due to the accumulation of toxic metals such as Aluminum, Chromium, and possibly Arsenic, Lead, and Cadmium. The proposed research involves elucidating the physiological, biochemical, and molecular mechanisms underlying plant adaptation to simulated Mars-like environments and developing transgenic plants that selectively extrude toxic heavy metals to produce edible food. Understanding the molecular mechanisms of plant adaptability to the simulated extraterrestrial environment will help space biology researchers to develop and design solutions for the plant growth management system. Sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam), which shows considerable abiotic stress tolerance, low water requirement, and a relatively short life cycle, is one of the crop plants considered as a model plant for space biology research. This project will investigate sweet potato's efficacy and adaptability as a potential Mars-crop to generate the food crop habitable in the harsh extraterrestrial environment. The proposed research's overall objectives are to perform physiological and biochemical characterization of the sweet potato plants under a simulated Mars-like environment and thoroughly evaluate the major traits such as development, biomass production, photosynthesis (oxygen emission capacity), tuber quality, and abiotic stress tolerance. Additionally, the functional genomics approach will be employed to identify novel genes regulating the physiological and biochemical functions, followed by validating their role in sweet potato adaption to the simulated Mars-like growth conditions. We will analyze the profiles and content of heavy metals in leaves, stem, and tuber tissues to understand the uptake and accumulation of toxic metals in sweet potato grown on Mars soil simulant. Further, the data will help develop transgenic stress-tolerant sweet potato plants in the future that selectively prevent heavy metal uptake. The proposed research project's outcomes will have broad societal relevance. The proposed project's long-term goal is to develop a sweet potato crop physiology program to generate cultivars plausibly habitable in harsh growth conditions. Our proposal's equally important objective is to educate, encourage, and engage the HBCU students in participating in NASA-related space biology research activities. The teaching modules will be developed to train undergraduate and graduate students in the research program. Program Area: NASA SMD Biological and Physical Sciences and NASA Space Life and Physical Sciences and Research under NASA-WV-EPSCOR R3 program

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