Genetically modified lettuce could help elimiante bone loss in astronauts - by AndyTomaswick
To create this transgenic lettuce, the team turned to a standard technique to give a plant a specific gene – they infected it with a bacteria known as Agrobacterium tumefaciens. In preliminary studies, the bacteria seemed to do its job well, causing the lettuce to produce between 10-12 milligrams of PTH per kilogram. At the current level, each astronaut would have to eat about 8 cups of lettuce per day to get enough PTH to stave off bone loss, which Yates admitted was a “pretty big salad.
But there’s room for improvement. An underlying assumption is that only 10% of the PTH that the plant produces will actually make its way into the human system, but that hasn’t been proven yet. So far, the researchers haven’t infested their modified crop themselves, as they are waiting on the outcome of animal studies to prove its safety. If other genetically modified crops are any indication, the lettuce should be safe to eat and taste similar to the traditional kind.
An advantage genetically modified crops have is that scientists can select strains with the highest rate of the characteristic they are searching for and continue to attempt to improve that best strain. Yates and his colleagues hope to do that with the lettuce they created, potentially boosting its output significantly.Once they find a strain they are happy with, they will want to test it on the space station.
But space isn’t the only place this form of lettuce might be helpful – there are areas on Earth that suffer from a lack of traditional medicine, and a lack of PTH could cause degenerative bone disease in those populations. Rather than attempting a massive and continual medication effort in these parts of the world, this new lettuce strain could reduce bone density loss in their populations.
Whether or not any of this will come to pass is still up in the air. NASA isn’t planning its first Mars mission until the 2030s, so there’s still plenty of time to work on perfecting the crop. And maybe the astronauts on that mission will get to enjoy a tasty, non-freeze dried leafy meal once a day. If it helps them stave off a debilitating bone condition, so much the better.
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