Tokyo, April 2 (IANS) Research aboard the space station may illuminate the mystery of a plant’s “sixth sense”, literally turning plant gravity-sensing research on its head.

Plants do have a unique sense of gravity, which is being tested in space.
Researchers with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency will conduct a second run of the Plant Gravity Sensing study after new supplies are delivered by the sixth SpaceX commercial re-supply mission to the International Space Station.
“Plants cultivated in space are not experienced with gravity or the direction of gravity and may not be able to form gravity sensors that respond to the specific direction of gravity changes,” said Hitoshi Tatsumi, principal investigator of the Plant Gravity Sensing investigation.
The research team seeks to determine how plants sense their growth direction without gravity.
The study results may have implications for higher crop yield in farming and for cultivating plants for long-duration space missions.
The investigation examines the cellular process of formation in thale cress, a small flowering plant related to cabbage.
In the Plant Gravity Sensing study, scientists examine whether the mechanisms of the plant that determine its growth direction – the gravity sensor – form in the absence of gravity.
Scientists hypothesise that the process in which amyloplast – particles within the plant cell that store and synthesise starch for energy – distributes and assembles occurs in the direction of gravitational pull.
If the study hypothesis is proven true, it may be possible to modify plant gravity-sensing mechanisms on earth or to cultivate healthy plants for consumption on future deep space missions or conceivably on other planets.
The plant’s gravity sensor may be regulated for growth in either a low or high magnitude of gravitational acceleration.
“We may design plants that respond to gravity vector changes more efficiently than wild ones,” said Tatsumi, an associate professor at the Nagoya University, Japan.

Tokyo, April 2 (IANS) Research aboard the space station may illuminate the mystery of a plant’s “sixth sense”, literally turning plant gravity-sensing research on its head.

Plants do have a unique sense of gravity, which is being tested in space.
Researchers with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency will conduct a second run of the Plant Gravity Sensing study after new supplies are delivered by the sixth SpaceX commercial re-supply mission to the International Space Station.
“Plants cultivated in space are not experienced with gravity or the direction of gravity and may not be able to form gravity sensors that respond to the specific direction of gravity changes,” said Hitoshi Tatsumi, principal investigator of the Plant Gravity Sensing investigation.
The research team seeks to determine how plants sense their growth direction without gravity.
The study results may have implications for higher crop yield in farming and for cultivating plants for long-duration space missions.
The investigation examines the cellular process of formation in thale cress, a small flowering plant related to cabbage.
In the Plant Gravity Sensing study, scientists examine whether the mechanisms of the plant that determine its growth direction – the gravity sensor – form in the absence of gravity.
Scientists hypothesise that the process in which amyloplast – particles within the plant cell that store and synthesise starch for energy – distributes and assembles occurs in the direction of gravitational pull.
If the study hypothesis is proven true, it may be possible to modify plant gravity-sensing mechanisms on earth or to cultivate healthy plants for consumption on future deep space missions or conceivably on other planets.
The plant’s gravity sensor may be regulated for growth in either a low or high magnitude of gravitational acceleration.
“We may design plants that respond to gravity vector changes more efficiently than wild ones,” said Tatsumi, an associate professor at the Nagoya University, Japan.