Arabidopsis Spaceflight Transcriptomes: Four Ecotypes from ISS CRS-4 Mission

Four distinct Arabidopsis thaliana ecotypes were germinated and grown for 8 days aboard the International Space Station. RNA sequencing was performed on 48 samples to catalog transcriptional patterns specific to the spaceflight environment, with parallel ground controls. This data release from NASA compares the spaceflight transcriptomes of the Col_0, Ler-2, Ws-2, and Cvi-0 ecotypes.

Use Cases

• Identify genes differentially expressed in spaceflight based on RNA-seq data from four ecotypes.
• Compare spaceflight stress response pathways across genetically distinct Arabidopsis populations.
• Assess the impact of ecotypic variability on transcriptional patterns in a microgravity environment.
• Validate Arabidopsis as a model organism for space biology by analyzing its transcriptional robustness.

Strengths

• Data includes ground control samples for isolating spaceflight-specific transcriptional changes.
• Compares four commonly used natural variants (ecotypes) of Arabidopsis thaliana.
• Samples were processed using RNAseq, a standard method for transcriptome cataloging.

Limitations

• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Seeds were flown on the ISS CRS-4 mission, germinated and grown for 8 days, fixed in RNAlater, and returned for RNA isolation and sequencing.

Time Range

Samples grown for an 8-day period during the CRS-4 mission.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 19:19:27.292936; freshness should be verified

Geography

Plants grown aboard the International Space Station, with controls grown on Earth.