Communications Biology (Jul 2021)

Potential evidence for transgenerational epigenetic memory in Arabidopsis thaliana following spaceflight

  • Peipei Xu,
  • Haiying Chen,
  • Jinbo Hu,
  • Weiming Cai

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-021-02342-4
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 4, no. 1
pp. 1 – 14

Abstract

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In order to investigate whether the effects of spaceflight on plants persist in future generations, Xu et al studied the offspring of Arabidopsis thaliana seedlings that had been grown in a microgravity environment for 11 days. They found that epigenetic modifications caused by spaceflight potentially affected the growth of two future seed generations, shedding light on the longevity of the effects of spaceflight on plants.