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Examfees t1_j0wkmk0 wrote

Reply to comment by 120z8t in World's first rice seeds harvested in orbit onboard China Space Station return to Earth by Opcn

What would be difference with mutation breeding in space compared to the techniques already done on land?

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bigredradio t1_j0ws916 wrote

If Gilligan's Island is to be believed, mutated foods give you super powers.

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120z8t t1_j0wmrhl wrote

The types of radiation available in space.

I am not saying these seeds will give us the best every strain of rice but besides cross breeding/selective breeding and GMO, radiation is another alternative.

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at-aol-dot-com t1_j0xldsi wrote

I’m not an expert, and I don’t mean for this to be THE answer to your question.

But when I read it, my first through had to do with something that could be interesting (I’m a little high, too, but stay with me, I have a source for my ponderings’ basis):

I am curious to learn how the space grown rice compares to earth grown rice, not just in characteristics like size, weight, etc, but mutations or other differences caused by the conditions on the space station at the molecular level (DNA).

What made me think about it is the 2015-2016 NASA study mission with identical twins:

So, in 2015 NASA began a study/mission to get data on what being in space for ~1 year, aboard a space craft (in this instance, the ISS), would do to the human body.

One identical twin (Scott) was in space for 340 days, and the other (Mark) stayed on Earth as the control subject.

>Ten teams of scientists studied different aspects of the twins’ health and biology, from gene expression to gut bacteria to cognition.

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