Minimizing the food outbreaks in space: Understanding innate plant defense response in leafy greens under zero gravity conditions

Alignment with NASA Directorate: Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate NASA Topic Areas: Plant and Microbial Interactions Summary: The production of healthful food crops in space could provide nutritional support for astronauts during long-¬‐duration space missions; and successful crop production in a closed ecosystem such as this requires that plants germinate, scavenge for nutrients, and overcome biotic and abiotic challenges of the environment to produce fruit (seed). As part of the “Vegetables in Space” mission (Vegetable-I-III), NASA in its last three expeditions to space was successful in growing leafy greens (Romaine Lettuce) in the space station. Leafy greens are most susceptible to cross contamination and ingression by multiple human opportunistic pathogens such as Listeria, Salmonella and Escherichia coli. Reducing the risk of foodborne illness associated with fresh produce is a task which the industry and academic researchers have been struggling with for many years. The persistence of human opportunistic pathogens such as Listeria, Salmonella and E. coli in plants, raises the question about food safety measures in crops grown in space stations. The current literature and work done in our labs have shown human opportunistic pathogens such as Salmonella may suppress plant defense for ingression leading to increased chances of foodborne contamination and illness. Our knowledge pertaining to how human opportunistic pathogens survive in plants under an altered gravity condition is sparse. In here, we will test the ingression and persistence of Salmonella and Listeria in lettuce under an altered gravity condition using a prototype designed by the investigators, which will tease the ability of plants to a launch defense response and then stomatal dynamics will be tested under an altered gravity condition. We aim to analyze transcriptional, physiological and biochemical changes in plants and human opportunistic pathogens subjected to an altered gravity condition. If successful, finding conditions that reduce ingression of human pathogens in leafy greens under space-like conditions should lead to efficient and effective food safety measures for space missions. The successful outcome of our proposed research will provide fundamental insight into how the unique plant-microbe associations are modulated under an altered gravity condition.

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