As NASA and its partners prepare for longer human missions beyond Earth, University of Florida researchers are investigating a challenge that could affect astronauts' ability to grow fresh food in space: plant disease.

The university's MVP-Plant-02 investigation, launched to the International Space Station on Oct. 13, will examine how plants respond to a fungal plant pathogen in microgravity. The research will help scientists determine whether the space environment changes a plant's defenses against disease and could make infections more severe.

Led by UF/IFAS researchers Andrew C. Schuerger, Ph.D., Robert Ferl, Ph.D., and Anna-Lisa Paul, Ph.D., the investigation brings together expertise in plant pathology and plant physiology from across UF's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences. The science team members are combining decades of experience studying how phytopathogens develop on vegetable crops and how plants grow and respond to the space environment.

"As humanity begins to establish bases on the moon and Mars, crews will benefit from the production of fresh fruits and vegetables in habitats called bioregenerative life support systems," Schuerger said. "Wherever plants and humans go, plant pathogens are soon to follow."

Bioregenerative life support systems use plants and other biological processes to help provide food and regenerate essential resources, including oxygen and water. Such systems could reduce astronauts' dependence on supplies transported from Earth, but they will need to remain productive and healthy over extended missions.

Understanding how plant diseases develop in space is an important step toward making those systems reliable...