Microbiological and nutritional analysis of lettuce crops grown on the International Space

Red romaine lettuce plants were grown in Veggie plant growth chambers on the International Space Station and compared with ground-grown controls. The dataset includes heterotrophic plate counts for bacteria and fungi, isolate identification, Next Generation Sequencing for community characterization, and analysis of elemental composition, phenolics, anthocyanins, and Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity. The data was produced by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, with a last update recorded in March 2026.

Use Cases

• Compare microbial community diversity between space-grown and Earth-grown plants based on Next Generation Sequencing data.
• Assess food safety for space-grown crops based on pathogen screening and heterotrophic plate count results.
• Analyze differences in nutritional content, such as elemental composition and phenolic levels, between flight and ground tissue.
• Model the effects of spaceflight conditions on plant physiology and associated microbiomes.

Strengths

• Includes direct comparison of ISS-grown and ground-control plants using synchronized environmental data.
• Provides multiple analytical layers: microbial counts, isolate identification, molecular characterization, and nutritional assays.
• Reports specific differences in bacterial and yeast/mold counts (2.14 – 4.86 log10 CFU/g) and elemental content (Fe, K, Na, P, S, Zn).

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment for large-scale analysis.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Experimental data from the VEG-03A mission, with plants grown in Veggie chambers on the ISS and ground controls.

Time Range

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Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 19:38:00.435509; freshness should be verified.

Geography

International Space Station and ground control locations.