Expanding frontiers: harnessing plant biology for space exploration and planetary sustainability

Luke L Fountain; Matthew Gilliham; Chiara Amitrano; Nafiou Arouna; Richard J Barker; Maik Böhmer; Markus Braun; Nicolas J B Brereton; Rebecca L Brocato; Jess M Bunchek; Emma L J Canaday; Nicol Caplin; Paola Castaño; Christine Chamberlain; Mélanie Decourteix; Marta Del Bianco; Veronica De Micco; Colleen J Doherty; Michel F Franke; Sigfredo Fuentes; Simon Gilroy; Lynn Harrison; Karl H Hasenstein; Jens Hauslage; Raúl Herranz; Anjali Iyer-Pascuzzi; Dylan Shun Izuma; Kirima Junya; John Z Kiss; Valérie Legué; James P B Lloyd; Massimo E Maffei; Gioia D Massa; Alexander D Meyers; Imara Y Perera; Lucie Poulet; Suruchi Roychoudry; Giovanni Sena; Dorothy E Shippen; Jared Stoochnoff; Hideyuki Takahashi; Sarah E Wyatt; Elison B Blancaflor

doi:10.1111/nph.70662

Expanding frontiers: harnessing plant biology for space exploration and planetary sustainability

New Phytol. 2026 Jan;249(2):656-669. doi: 10.1111/nph.70662. Epub 2025 Nov 26.

Authors

Luke L Fountain¹, Matthew Gilliham², Chiara Amitrano³, Nafiou Arouna⁴, Richard J Barker⁵, Maik Böhmer⁶, Markus Braun⁷, Nicolas J B Brereton⁸, Rebecca L Brocato⁹, Jess M Bunchek¹⁰, Emma L J Canaday¹¹, Nicol Caplin¹², Paola Castaño¹³, Christine Chamberlain¹⁴, Mélanie Decourteix¹⁵, Marta Del Bianco¹⁶, Veronica De Micco³, Colleen J Doherty¹⁷, Michel F Franke¹⁰, Sigfredo Fuentes¹⁸, Simon Gilroy¹⁹, Lynn Harrison²⁰, Karl H Hasenstein²¹, Jens Hauslage²², Raúl Herranz²³, Anjali Iyer-Pascuzzi²⁴, Dylan Shun Izuma²⁵, Kirima Junya²⁵, John Z Kiss²⁶, Valérie Legué¹⁵, James P B Lloyd²⁷, Massimo E Maffei²⁸, Gioia D Massa²⁹, Alexander D Meyers¹, Imara Y Perera³⁰, Lucie Poulet³¹, Suruchi Roychoudry³², Giovanni Sena³³, Dorothy E Shippen³⁴, Jared Stoochnoff³⁵, Hideyuki Takahashi³⁶, Sarah E Wyatt¹¹, Elison B Blancaflor^{20

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Affiliations

¹ NASA Postdoctoral Program Fellow, NASA Kennedy Space Center, Merritt Island, 32899, FL, USA.
² Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Plants for Space, School of Agriculture, Food and Wine & Waite Research Institute, University of Adelaide, Urrbrae, SA, 5064, Australia.
³ Department of Agricultural Sciences, University of Naples Federico II, piazza Carlo di Borbone 1, 80055, Portici (NA), Italy.
⁴ Institute of Agricultural Biology and Biotechnology, National Research Council, 56124, Pisa, Italy.
⁵ Agricultural & Biological Engineering Department, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, 47907, USA.
⁶ Institute for Molecular Biosciences, Johann Wolfgang Goethe University, 60438, Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
⁷ Department of Research and Exploration, German Aerospace Center (DLR), 53227, Bonn, Germany.
⁸ School of Biology and Environmental Science, University College Dublin, Dublin, D04 V1W8, Ireland.
⁹ Human Research Program, NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX, 77058, USA.
¹⁰ Institute of Space Systems, German Aerospace Center (DLR), 28359, Bremen, Germany.
¹¹ Department of Environmental and Plant Biology, Ohio University, Athens, OH, 45701, USA.
¹² Directorate of Human Spaceflight and Robotic Exploration Programmes, European Space Agency, Noordwijk, 2201 AZ, the Netherlands.
¹³ Egenis Centre for the Study of the Life Sciences, University of Exeter, Exeter, EX4 4PJ, UK.
¹⁴ Space Lab Technologies, LLC, 5455 Spine Rd., Boulder, CO, 80301, USA.
¹⁵ Université Clermont Auvergne, INRAE, PIAF, F-63000, Clermont-Ferrand, France.
¹⁶ Italian Space Agency, Via del Politecnico, snc, 00133, Rome, Italy.
¹⁷ Department of Molecular and Structural Biology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, 27695, USA.
¹⁸ Digital Agriculture, Food and Wine Group, School of Agriculture, Food and Ecosystems Sciences. ARC Centre of Excellence in Plants for Space, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, 3010, Melbourne, Vic., Australia.
¹⁹ Department of Botany, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Birge Hall, 430 Lincoln Drive, Madison, WI, 53706, USA.
²⁰ Biological and Physical Sciences Division, Science Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC, 20546, USA.
²¹ Department of Biology, University of Louisiana Lafayette, Lafayette, LA, 70504-3602, USA.
²² Institute of Aerospace Medicine, Aeromedical FabLab, German Aerospace Center (DLR) Linder Hoehe, 51147, Cologne, Germany.
²³ Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas Margarita Salas (CSIC), Ramiro de Maeztu 9, 28040, Madrid, Spain.
²⁴ Department of Botany and Plant Pathology and Center for Plant Biology, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, 47907, USA.
²⁵ Space Environment Utilization Center, Human Spaceflight Technology Directorate, JAXA Tsukuba Space Center, Sengen 2-1-1, Tsukuba City, Japan.
²⁶ Department of Biomedical Engineering and Science, Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne, FL, 32901, USA.
²⁷ Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Plants for Space, School of Molecular Sciences, The University of Western Australia, 6009, Perth, Western Australia, Australia.
²⁸ Department of Life Sciences and Systems Biology, Plant Physiology Unit, University of Turin, Via Quarello 15/A, I-10135, Turin, Italy.
²⁹ Exploration & Research Technology Programs, NASA Kennedy Space Center, Merritt Island, 32899, FL, USA.
³⁰ Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, 27695, USA.
³¹ Université Clermont Auvergne, Clermont Auvergne INP, CNRS, Institut Pascal, F-63000, Clermont-Ferrand, France.
³² Centre for Plant Sciences, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK.
³³ Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, London, SW7 2AZ, UK.
³⁴ Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Texas A&M University, 2128 TAMU, College Station, TX, 77843, USA.
³⁵ Canadian Space Agency, Lunar Exploration Program, Saint-Hubert, Québec, J3Y 8Y9, Canada.
³⁶ Research Center for Space Agriculture and Horticulture, Chiba University, Matsudo City, 271-8510, Japan.

PMID: 41295882
DOI: 10.1111/nph.70662

Abstract

Plants are critical for sustaining human life and planetary health. However, their potential to enable humans to survive and thrive beyond Earth remains unrealized. This Viewpoint presents a collective vision outlining priorities associated with plant science to support a new frontier of human existence. These priorities are drawn from the International Space Life Sciences Working Group (ISLSWG) Plants for Space Exploration and Earth Applications workshop, held at the European Low Gravity Research Association (ELGRA) conference in September 2024. First, we highlight transformative advances gained from using the 'laboratory of space' in understanding how plants respond to gravity and other stressors. Second, we introduce a new crop Bioregenerative Life Support System (BLSS) readiness level (BRL) framework - extending the existing Crop Readiness Level (CRL) - to assist in overcoming challenges to establish resilient, sustainable crop production. Materializing the vision of plants as enablers of space exploration will require innovative approaches, including predictive modeling, synthetic biology, robust Earth-based analogue systems, and reliable space-based instruments to monitor biological processes. Success relies upon a unified international community to promote sharing of resources, facilities, expertise, and data to accelerate progress. Ultimately, this work will both advance human space exploration and provide solutions to enhance sustainable plant production on Earth.

Keywords: BLSS; controlled environment agriculture; plant space biology; space crop production; space exploration; sustainability; synthetic biology.

© 2025 His Majesty the King in Right of Canada and The Author(s). New Phytologist © 2025 New Phytologist Foundation. Reproduced with the permission of the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry. This article has been contributed to by U.S. Government employees and their work is in the public domain in the USA.

Expanding frontiers: harnessing plant biology for space exploration and planetary sustainability

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