Effects of space environment on biological characters of tissue cultured rose seedlings

Tissue cultured rose seedlings were carried into space by SHENZHOU-4 spacecraft and then used as the experimental material to investigate effects of the space environmental conditions on morphology, cytology, physiology and molecular biology of the seedlings. After loaded on the space flight, the plant's height, number of leaves, and fresh weight per seedling were all increased significantly compared to the ground controls. The content of chlorophyll was basically unchanged. In some cells, the ultrastructural changes involved twist, contraction and deformation of cell wall, curvature and loose arrangement of lamellae of some chloroplasts, and a significant increase in number of starch grains per chloroplast. In addition, the number of mitochondria increased, but some mitochondrial outer membrane broke, and some mitochondrial cristae disappeared. The activities of the defense enzymes, such as superoxide dismutase, peroxidase and catalyse, in rose leaves increased and the content of malondialdehyde decreased. In the RAPD analysis with 40 10-mer primers, 36 primers generated 148 DNA bands from both of the space flight treated seedlings and the ground controls, and five primers amplified polymorphic products. The rate of DNA variation was 6.34%.