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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 19 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1989

Release of somatic embryogenic potential from excised zygotic embryos of carrot and maintenance of proembryonic cultures in hormone-free medium

Excised zygotic embryos, mericarps ("seeds") and hypocotyls of seedlings of cultivated carrot Daucus carota cv. Scarlet Nantes were evaluated for their ability to generate somatic embryos on a semisolid hormone-free nutrient medium. Neither intact zygotic embryos nor hypocotyls ever produced somatic embryos. However, mericarps and broken zygotic embryos were excellent sources for somatic embryo production (response levels as high as 86%). Somatic embryo formation was highest from cotyledons, but was also observed on isolated hypocotyls and root tips of mature zygotic embryos. On media containing unreduced nitrogen, somatic embryo formation led to the generation of vigorous cultures comprised entirely of somatic embryos at various stages of development which in turn proliferated still other somatic embryos. However, a medium was devised which when 1-5 mM NH4+ was the sole nitrogen source, led only to a proliferation of globular proembryos. Sustained subculturing of these proembryos at 2-3 week intervals enabled establishment of highly uniform cultures in which no further development into more mature stages of embryonic development occurred. These have been maintained, without decline, as morphogenetically competent proembryonic globules for over ten months. A basal medium containing from 1-5 mM NH4+ as the sole nitrogen source appears not to be inductive to somatic proembryo formation. Instead, such a medium is best thought of as permissive to the expression of embryogenically determined cells within zygotic embryos. By excising and breaking or wounding zygotic embryos, constituent cells are probably released from positional or chemical restraints and thus are able to express their innate embryogenic potential. Once a proembryonic culture is established, this medium containing 1-5 mM NH4+ as the sole nitrogen source provides a nonpermissive environment to the development and growth of later embryonic stages, but it does allow the continued formation and multiplication of globular somatic proembryos. The sequence of events leading from excised broken zygotic embryos to the formation of somatic embryos and the maintenance of somatic proembryos are demonstrated by scanning electron microscopy and histological preparations. Germination levels from intact zygotic embryos on media with varying levels and ratios of unreduced vs. reduced inorganic nitrogen were determined as well and provided baseline or control data on the type of response obtained from nonwounded material.

Non-NASA Center↗
NASA NTRS1993

Deep cytoplasmic rearrangements in ventralized Xenopus embryos

Following fertilization in Xenopus, dramatic rearrangements of the egg cytoplasm relocalize maternally synthesized egg components. During the first cell cycle the vegetal yolk mass rotates relative to the egg surface, toward the sperm entry point (SEP) (J. P. Vincent, G. F. Oster, and J. C. Gerhart, 1986, Dev. Biol. 113, 484-500), while concomitant deep cytoplasmic rearrangements occur in the animal hemisphere (M. V. Danilchik and J. M. Denegre, 1991, Development 111, 845-856). In this paper we examine the role of vegetal yolk mass rotation in producing the animal cytoplasmic rearrangements. We inhibited rotation by uv-irradiating embryos during the first cell cycle, a treatment that yields an extremely ventralized phenotype. Both uv-irradiated embryos and unirradiated control embryos show cytoplasmic rearrangements in the animal hemisphere during the first cell cycle. Cytoplasmic rearrangements on the SEP side of the embryo associated with the path of the sperm pronucleus, plus a swirl on the anti-SEP (dorsal) side, are seen, whether or not yolk mass rotation has occurred. This result suggests a role for the expanding sperm aster in directing animal hemisphere cytoplasmic movements. In unirradiated control embryos the anti-SEP (dorsal) swirl is larger than that in uv-irradiated embryos and often extends into the vegetal hemisphere, consistent with the animal cytoplasm having been pulled dorsally and vegetally by the sliding vegetal yolk mass. Thus the yolk mass rotation may normally enhance the dorsalward cytoplasmic movement, begun by the sperm aster, enough to induce normal axis formation. We extended our observations of unirradiated control and uv-irradiated embryos through early cleavages. The vegetal extent of the anti-SEP (dorsal) swirl pattern seen in control embryos persists through the early cleavage period, such that labeled animal cytoplasm extends deep into dorsal third-tier blastomeres at the 32-cell stage. Significantly, in uv-irradiated embryos, which have not undergone vegetal rotation, most of this labeled material remains more equatorial.

Non-NASA Center↗
NASA NTRS2002

Early embryo development in Fucus distichus is auxin sensitive

Auxin and polar auxin transport have been implicated in controlling embryo development in land plants. The goal of these studies was to determine if auxin and auxin transport are also important during the earliest stages of development in embryos of the brown alga Fucus distichus. Indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) was identified in F. distichus embryos and mature tissues by gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy. F. distichus embryos accumulate [(3)H]IAA and an inhibitor of IAA efflux, naphthylphthalamic acid (NPA), elevates IAA accumulation, suggesting the presence of an auxin efflux protein complex similar to that found in land plants. F. distichus embryos normally develop with a single unbranched rhizoid, but growth on IAA leads to formation of multiple rhizoids and growth on NPA leads to formation of embryos with branched rhizoids, at concentrations that are active in auxin accumulation assays. The effects of IAA and NPA are complete before 6 h after fertilization (AF), which is before rhizoid germination and cell division. The maximal effects of IAA and NPA are between 3.5 and 5 h AF and 4 and 5.5 h AF, respectively. Although, the location of the planes of cell division was significantly altered in NPA- and IAA-treated embryos, these abnormal divisions occurred after abnormal rhizoid initiation and branching was observed. The results of this study suggest that auxin acts in the formation of apical basal patterns in F. distichus embryo development.

Non-NASA Center↗
NASA NTRS1988

Effect of salicylhydroxamic acid on endosperm strength and embryo growth of Lactuca sativa L. cv Waldmann's Green seeds

Salicylhydroxamic acid (SHAM) stimulated germination of photosensitive lettuce (Lactuca sativa L. cv Waldmann's Green) seeds in darkness. To determine whether SHAM acts on the embryo or the endosperm, we investigated separately effects of SHAM on growth potential of isolated embryos as well as on endosperm strength. Embryo growth potential was quantified by incubating decoated embryos in various concentrations of osmoticum and measuring subsequent radicle elongation. Growth potential of embryos isolated from seeds pretreated with 4 millimolar SHAM was equal to that of untreated controls. Rupture strength of endosperm tissue excised from seeds pretreated with SHAM was 33% less than that of controls in the micropylar region. To determine if the embryo must be in contact with the endosperm of SHAM to weaken the endosperm, some endosperms were incubated with SHAM only after dissection from seeds. Rupture strength of SHAM-treated, isolated endosperms in the micropylar region was 25% less than that of untreated controls. There was no difference in rupture strength in the cotyledonary region of endosperm isolated from seeds treated with SHAM in buffer or buffer alone. SHAM therefore stimulates germination not by enhancing embryo growth potential, but by weakening the micropylar region of the endosperm enclosing the embryo.

NASA Discipline Plant Biology↗
NASA NTRS1998

Blastomeres show differential fate changes in 8-cell Xenopus laevis embryos that are rotated 90 degrees before first cleavage

To study the mechanisms of dorsal axis specification, the alteration in dorsal cell fate of cleavage stage blastomeres in axis-respecified Xenopus laevis embryos was investigated. Fertilized eggs were rotated 90 degrees with the sperm entry point up or down with respect to the gravitational field. At the 8-cell stage, blastomeres were injected with the lineage tracers, Texas Red- or FITC-Dextran Amines. The distribution of the labeled progeny was mapped at the tail-bud stages (stages 35-38) and compared with the fate map of an 8-cell embryo raised in a normal orientation. As in the normal embryos, each blastomere in the rotated embryos has a characteristic and predictable cell fate. After 90 degrees rotation the blastomeres in the 8-cell stage embryo roughly switched their position by 90 degrees, but the fate of the blastomeres did not simply show a 90 degrees switch appropriate for their new location. Four types of fate change were observed: (i) the normal fate of the blastomere is conserved with little change; (ii) the normal fate is completely changed and a new fate is adopted according to the blastomere's new position: (iii) the normal fate is completely changed, but the new fate is not appropriate for its new position; and (4) the blastomere partially changed its fate and the new fate is a combination of its original fate and a fate appropriate to its new location. According to the changed fates, the blastomeres that adopt dorsal fates were identified in rotated embryos. This identification of dorsal blastomeres provides basic important information for further study of dorsal signaling in Xenopus embryos.

NASA Discipline Developmental Biology↗
NASA NTRS1984

Tissue densities in developing avian embryos

The density changes in the components of the incubated egg, the embryo, and the embryo's body parts were measured in the course of 21 days of incubation. In the first two-thirds of the incubation period there is a sequence of increasing density among egg contents: amniotic fluid, embryo, yolk, and albumin. As a result, the embryo is located at the bottom of the amniotic fluid, but at the top of the albumin. This position provides the embryo with mechanical protection and a proximity to the egg's air cell. The observed density changes and the asymmetry of these changes among various body parts of the embryo suggest a functional relationship. The density distributions among the body parts are particularly important in gravitational investigations of embryogenesis since they will produce forces tending to dislocate parts of the embryo.

Smith, A. H.↗
NASA NTRS1998

[Characteristics of morphogenesis of the Japanese quail embryos during microgravity]

Experiments performed in the period of 1995-1996 cooperatively with US investigators within the MIR/SHUTTLE and MIR/NASA space science projects continued exploration of avian embryogenesis in microgravity. Evaluation of Japanese quail embryos incubated in spaceflight microgravity showed that for the most part they were normally developed and compliant with duration of incubation. One of the major morphometric characteristics of embryo are its mass and size. Comparative analysis of body mass values in the space and laboratory and synchronous control groups pointed to a slight retardation. Body length of space embryos mimicked their mass curve. Data on the dynamics of mass and length of Japanese quail embryos support the well-known theory according to which growth and formation are distinguished by equifinality. No differences were revealed by the investigations of individual parts of embryonic bodies in the space and control groups. However, this finding was true only with regard to the embryos that had no developmental abnormalities. A part of embryos had defective eyes (microphtalmia), limbs (twisted fingers), and beaks.

manned↗
NASA NTRS2000

Ultrastructural analyses of somatic embryo initiation, development and polarity establishment from mesophyll cells of Dactylis glomerata

Somatic embryos initiate and develop directly from single mesophyll cells in in vitro-cultured leaf segments of orchardgrass (Dactylis glomerata L.). Embryogenic cells establish themselves in the predivision stage by formation of thicker cell walls and dense cytoplasm. Electron microscopy observations for embryos ranging from the pre-cell-division stage to 20-cell proembryos confirm previous light microscopy studies showing a single cell origin. They also confirm that the first division is predominantly periclinal and that this division plane is important in establishing embryo polarity and in determining the embryo axis. If the first division is anticlinal or if divisions are in random planes after the first division, divisions may not continue to produce an embryo. This result may produce an embryogenic cell mass, callus formation, or no structure at all. Grant numbers: NAGW-3141, NAG10-0221.

Non-NASA Center↗
NASA NTRS1990

Somatic proembryo production from excised, wounded zygotic carrot embryos on hormone-free medium: evaluation of the effects of pH, ethylene and activated charcoal

Wounded zygotic embryos of cultivated carrot produce somatic proembryos on hormone-free nutrient medium containing 1 mM NH4+ as the sole nitrogen source. Continued maintenance of proembryos on this medium leads to a "pure" culture of preglobular stage proembryos (PGSPs). Ethylene had no effect on this process. Also, somatic embryo production was not affected by growing cultures on activated charcoal-impregnated filter papers. However, somatic proembyros initiated on activated charcoal papers were not maintainable as PGSPs and developed into later embryo stages. Normally, medium pH dropped from 5.7 to 4 during each subculture period, but when using activated charcoal papers the pH endpoint was around 6 - 7 due to a leachable substance(s) within the filter papers. When powdered, activated charcoal was used in the medium as an adsorbent of products potentially released after wounding, pH dropped at the normal rate and to the expected levels; proembryos did not mature into later embryo stages and were maintainable exclusively as PGSPs. Low pH (approximately 4) is detrimental to proembyro production, but is essential to maintaining PGSPs on hormone-free nutrient medium, whereas a sustained pH > or = 5.7 allows continued development of PGSPs into later embryo stages.

NASA Program Space Biology↗
NASA NTRS2000

Pollination and embryo development in Brassica rapa L. in microgravity

Plant reproduction under spaceflight conditions has been problematic in the past. In order to determine what aspect of reproductive development is affected by microgravity, we studied pollination and embryo development in Brassica rapa L. during 16 d in microgravity on the space shuttle (STS-87). Brassica is self-incompatible and requires mechanical transfer of pollen. Short-duration access to microgravity during parabolic flights on the KC-135A aircraft was used initially to confirm that equal numbers of pollen grains could be collected and transferred in the absence of gravity. Brassica was grown in the Plant Growth Facility flight hardware as follows. Three chambers each contained six plants that were 13 d old at launch. As these plants flowered, thin colored tape was used to indicate the date of hand pollination, resulting in silique populations aged 8-15 d postpollination at the end of the 16-d mission. The remaining three chambers contained dry seeds that germinated on orbit to produce 14-d-old plants just beginning to flower at the time of landing. Pollen produced by these plants had comparable viability (93%) with that produced in the 2-d-delayed ground control. Matched-age siliques yielded embryos of equivalent developmental stage in the spaceflight and ground control treatments. Carbohydrate and protein storage reserves in the embryos, assessed by cytochemical localization, were also comparable. In the spaceflight material, growth and development by embryos rescued from siliques 15 d after pollination lagged behind the ground controls by 12 d; however, in the subsequent generation, no differences between the two treatments were found. The results demonstrate that while no stage of reproductive development in Brassica is absolutely dependent upon gravity, lower embryo quality may result following development in microgravity.

short duration↗
NASA NTRS1996

Short latency vestibular evoked potentials in the chicken embryo

Electrophysiological responses to pulsed linear acceleration stimuli were recorded in chicken embryos incubated for 19 or 20 days (E19/E20). Responses occurred within the first 16 ms following the stimulus onset. The evoked potentials disappeared following bilateral labyrinthectomy, but persisted following cochlear destruction alone, thus demonstrating that the responses were vestibular. Approximately 8 to 10 response peaks could be identified. The first 4 positive and corresponding negative components (early peaks with latencies < 6.0 ms) were scored and latencies and amplitudes quantified. Vestibular response latencies were significantly longer (P < 0.01) and amplitudes significantly smaller (P < 0.001) than those observed in 2-week-old birds. Mean response threshold for anesthetized embryos was -15.9dBre 1.0 g/ms, which was significantly higher (P < 0.03) than those observed in 2-week-old birds (-23.0dBre 1.0 g/ms). Latency/intensity functions (that is, slopes) were not significantly different between embryos and 2-week-old animals, but amplitude/intensity functions for embryos were significantly shallower than those for 2-week-old birds (P < 0.001). We presume that these differences reflect the refinement of sensory function that occurs following 19 to 20 days of incubation. The recording of vestibular evoked potentials provides an objective, direct and noninvasive measure of peripheral vestibular function in the embryo and, as such, the method shows promise as an investigative tool. The results of the present study form the definitive basis for using vestibular evoked potentials in the detailed study of avian vestibular ontogeny and factors that may influence it.

Non-NASA Center↗
NASA NTRS1992

Green and non-green callus induction from excised rice (Oryza sativa) embryos: effects of exogenous plant growth regulators

Calli were induced either from excised rice embryos or from whole seeds in the presence of 1 to 5 mg l-1 NAA. After 12 days of culture, calli were induced only from excised rice embryos. We found that excised embryos accumulated NAA up to 6 times higher concentration than did whole seeds. In the presence of 1 to 5 mg l-1 NAA and 2 to 10 mg l-1 kinetin, chlorophyllous calli were induced from excised rice embryos. Chlorophyll contents in the callus tissue increased with increasing kinetin concentration while percent callus induction decreased. The total chlorophyll content was linearly correlated with the ratio of kinetin to NAA in the medium.

NASA Discipline Number 40-50↗
NASA NTRS2000

Precambrian animal diversity: putative phosphatized embryos from the Doushantuo Formation of China

Putative fossil embryos and larvae from the Precambrian phosphorite rocks of the Doushantuo Formation in Southwest China have been examined in thin section by bright field and polarized light microscopy. Although we cannot completely exclude a nonbiological or nonmetazoan origin, we identified what appear to be modern cnidarian developmental stages, including both anthozoan planula larvae and hydrozoan embryos. Most importantly, the sections contain a variety of small (</=200 microm) structures that greatly resemble gastrula stage embryos of modern bilaterian forms.

Non-NASA Center↗
NASA NTRS1998

Chloral hydrate alters the organization of the ciliary basal apparatus and cell organelles in sea urchin embryos

The mitotic inhibitor, chloral hydrate, induces ciliary loss in the early embryo phase of Lytechinus pictus. It causes a breakdown of cilia at the junction of the cilium and the basal body known as the basal plate. This leaves the plasma membrane temporarily unsealed. The basal apparatus accessory structures, consisting of the basal body, basal foot, basal foot cap, striated side arm, and striated rootlet, are either misaligned or disintegrated by treatment with chloral hydrate. Furthermore, microtubules which are associated with the basal apparatus are disassembled. Mitochondria accumulate at the base of cilia - underneath the plasma membrane - and show alterations in their structural organization. The accumulation of mitochondria is observed in 40% of all electron micrograph sections while 60% show the areas mostly devoid of mitochondria. The microvilli surrounding a cilium and striated rootlet remain intact in the presence of chloral hydrate. These results suggest that deciliation in early sea urchin embryos by chloral hydrate is caused by combined effects on the ciliary membrane and on microtubules in the cilia. Furthermore, it is suggested that chloral hydrate can serve as a tool to explore the cytoskeletal mechanisms that are involved in cilia motility in the developing sea urchin embryo.

Non-NASA Center↗
NASA NTRS1981

Growth and development of cultured carrot cells and embryos under spaceflight conditions

Morphogenetically competent proembryonic cells and well-developed somatic embryos of carrot at two levels of organization were exposed for 18.5 days to a hypogravity environment aboard the Soviet Biosatellite Cosmos 1129. It was confirmed that cultured totipotent cells of carrot can give rise to embryos with well-developed roots and minimally developed shoots. It was also shown that the space hypogravity environment could support the further growth of already-organized, later somatic embryonic stages and give rise to fully developed embryo-plantlets with roots and shoots.

Krikorian, A. D.↗
NASA NTRS1994

Proposed law of nature linking impacts, plume volcanism, and Milankovitch cycles to terrestrial vertebrate mass extinctions via greenhouse-embryo death coupling

A greenhouse-physiological coupling killing mechanism active among mammals, birds, and reptiles has been identified. Operating via environmental thermal effects upon the maternal core-skin blood flow critical to the survival and development of embryos, it reduces the flow of blood to the uterine tract. Today, during hot summers, this phenomena kills embryos on a vast, global scale. Because of sensitivity of many mammals to modern heat, a major modern greenhouse could reduce population numbers on a global scale, and potentially trigger population collapses in the more vulnerable parts of the world. In the geological past, the killing mechanism has likely been triggered into action by greenhouse warming via impact events, plume volcanism, and Earth orbital variations (Milankovitch cycles). Earth's biosphere is maintained and molded by the flow of energy from the solar energy source to Earth and on to the space energy sink (SES). This SES energy flow maintains Earth's biosphere and its living components, as open, intermediate, dissipative, nonequilibrium systems whose states are dependent upon the rate of energy flowing through them. Greenhouse gases such as CO2 in the atmosphere influence the SES energy flow rate. Steady-state flow is necessary for global ecological stability (autopoiesis). Natural fluctuations of the C cycle such as rapid releases of CO2 from the mantle, or oceans, disrupt steady-state SES flow. These fluctuations constantly challenge the biosphere; slowdown of SES energy flow drives it toward thermodynamical equilibrium and stagnation. Fluctuations induced by impact event, mantle plume volcanism, and Milankovitch cycles can grow into structure-breaking waves triggering major perturbations of Earth's C cycle and mass extinctions. A major C cycle perturbation involves readjustment of the outer physiochemical spheres of the Earth: the atmosphere, hydrosphere, and lithosphere; and by necessity, the biosphere. A greenhouse, one manifestation of a major C cycle perturbation, is the most dangerous natural phenomenon that life on Earth can experience. Greenhouse conditions existed during the KT mass extinctions of 65 m.y. ago, and the Pleistocene-Holocene (P-H) mammalian extinctions of 10,000-12,000 yr ago. Coupling climatology to reproductive physiology via effects of ambient air temperature upon uterine blood flow to developing embryos accounts for the extinctions via established physiological principles.

Mclean, D. M.↗
NASA NTRS1993

The avian embryo responding to microgravity of space flight

Of all the many potential and real microenvironmental influences, only gravity would appear to have remained relatively constant and ubiquitous for developing organisms. Histo- and organogenesis as well as differential growth of the embryo and fetus may have evolved with a constant environmental factor of gravity. Chick embryos of 2-day and 9-day stages of incubation were flown in an incubator on the Space Shuttle during a 9-day mission. Significant differences in embryo response to this microgravity environment were observed. This paper offers an analysis and suggests mechanisms which may contribute to these results.

Hullinger, Ronald L.↗
NASA NTRS2003

AmphiFoxQ2, a novel winged helix/forkhead gene, exclusively marks the anterior end of the amphioxus embryo

A full-length FoxQ-related gene (AmphiFoxQ2) was isolated from amphioxus. Expression is first detectable in the animal/anterior hemisphere at the mid blastula stage. The midpoint of this expression domain coincides with the anterior pole of the embryo and is offset dorsally by about 20 degrees from the animal pole. During the gastrula stage, expression is limited to the anterior ectoderm. By the early neurula stage, expression remains in the anterior ectoderm and also appears in the adjacent anterior mesendoderm. By the early larval stages, expression is detectable in the anteriormost ectoderm and in the rostral tip of the notochord. AmphiFoxQ2 is never expressed anywhere except at the anterior tip of amphioxus embryos and larvae. This is the first gene known that exclusively marks the anterior pole of chordate embryos. It may, therefore, play an important role in establishing and/or maintaining the anterior/posterior axis.

Non-NASA Center↗