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Building and Operating a Low-Cost Elevated Carbon Dioxide Growth Chamber to Evaluate Microgreen Physiology under Spaceflight-Relevant CO<sub>2</sub> Levels

Carbon dioxide (CO2) levels aboard crewed spacecraft routinely exceed 3,000 ppm, significantly higher than atmospheric concentrations on Earth. Sustained ...

North Carolina State University

Tapinoma sessile (Say) is a common ant throughout the United States that frequently relocates portions of its nests to form large polydomous colonies in urban areas. Despite widespread research on the control of T. sessile as a nuisance pest, relatively little work has focused on the biology of its nesting behavior and movement. We evaluated shade, moisture, and proximity to food as factors triggering colony movement in laboratory assays. Initially, T. sessile colonies moved to shaded artificial nest sites irrespective of arena moisture. Then, workers and brood were increasingly moved to moist artificial nest sites over time. Colonies moved workers and brood to near-food artificial nest sites over both 1 m and 6 m distances. Queens relocated to near-food nest sites over 1 m distances, but not 6 m distances, during the 49-d study. Results suggest that an increase either in moisture or food in proximity to a residence is likely to account for observed increases in T. sessile abundance near structures.

Odorous House Ant (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) Colony Movement in Response to Moisture, Shade, and Food Proximity.

Although many reports characterize the transcriptional response of  seedlings to microgravity, few investigate the effect of partial or fractional gravity on gene expression. Understanding plant responses to fractional gravity is relevant for plant growth on lunar and Martian surfaces. The plant signaling flight experiment utilized the European Modular Cultivation System (EMCS) onboard the International Space Station (ISS). The EMCS consisted of two rotors within a controlled chamber allowing for two experimental conditions, microgravity (stationary rotor) and simulated gravity in space. Seedlings were grown for 5 days under continuous light in seed cassettes. The arrangement of the seed cassettes within each experimental container results in a gradient of fractional  (in the spinning rotor). To investigate whether gene expression patterns are sensitive to fractional , we carried out transcriptional profiling of root samples exposed to microgravity or partial  (ranging from 0.53 to 0.88 ). Data were analyzed using DESeq2 with fractional  as a continuous variable in the design model in order to query gene expression across the gravity continuum. We identified a subset of genes whose expression correlates with changes in fractional . Interestingly, the most responsive genes include those encoding transcription factors, defense, and cell wall-related proteins and heat shock proteins.

Article	Year
Odorous House Ant (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) Colony Movement in Response to Moisture, Shade, and Food Proximity. Environmental entomology\| PubMed ID: 33159439	2020
Uncovering Transcriptional Responses to Fractional Gravity in Roots. Life (Basel, Switzerland)\| PubMed ID: 34685382	2021

T. Aurora Toennisson

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