Researchers Find A Way To Grow Tomatoes In Space

Many thousands of plants need the land to be liveable and supplemented with excessive fertilizers which flow in streams and rivers. At the beginning of this year, the United Nations has warned the threat of land, where over 500 million people are living on, was negatively affected by deforestation, changes of weather patterns as well as the overuse of viable cropland.

A burden transfer of growing crops to urban areas and other places is being studied by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, a non-profit organization. This organization is working on agriculture tomatoes that can be grown in urban sites. These tomatoes are characterized by their being genetically modified so that they look like a rose when they are ripe. Their growth is extremely fast and can be ready for harvesting in less than 40 days. Above all, they are extremely environmentally friendly.

Zach Lippman, the HHMI Investigator of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, along with his team, has reported their creation of new tomatoes via the fine-tuning of two genes that affect the transfer to reproductive growth as well as plant sizes. These two genes are SP5G and SELF PRUNING (SP) that can cause the plants to stop developing at sooner, and flowers or fruit earlier. However, the lab understood that they could only change the SP sister genes prior to the trade of flavor or yield for small plants. 

The research team has recently also found out SIER, another gene that supports the control of stems' lengths. Accordingly, shorter stems, as well as solid plants, can be created thanks to the mutation of SIER with a gene-editing tool for CRISPR combining with the mutations of two other flowering genes. As a result, these gene-modified tomatoes can easily be grown in many urban areas and spaces, including vertical gardens, or storage units, where the harvesting is quick and easy.

Additionally, the research team is having a plan to examine this method with an aim to produce other fruit crops such as kiwis, stated by Nature Biotechnology. Lippman is certain about the potential of NASA's interest in the team's innovation. He also believes in the astronauts testing out their urbanized tomatoes.