Biological Research in Canisters-16 (BRIC-16): Transcriptomics, Glycomics, and Morphometric photography.

These investigations studied the fundamentals of how plants perceive gravity and develop in microgravity. It informs how gene regulation is altered by spaceflight conditions. We noted expression changes in genes involved in hypoxia and heat shock responses, DNA repair, and cell wall structure between spaceflight samples compared to the ground controls. In addition, glycome profiling supported our expression analyses in that there was a difference in cell wall components between ground control and spaceflight-grown plants. Comparing our studies to those of the other BRIC-16 experiments demonstrated that, even with the same hardware and similar biological materials, differences in results in gene expression were found among these spaceflight experiments.