Grape seeds from Texas are going to space
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Wine grapes from Texas will soon join worms, human sperm, and cookie dough on a growing list of Earth objects sent to space. Hundreds of grape seeds will spend about six months being exposed to cosmic radiation on the International Space Station (ISS). The seeds will then return to Earth for planting. They might even be turned into wine. If so, they’d become the first wine ever made from grape seeds that traveled through space, much like a meteorite-infused vodka.
This experiment is part of the Texas A&M/Aegis Aerospace Multi-Use Space Platform Integrating Research and Innovative Technology (TAMU-SPIRIT) research mission. The project is designed to serve as a “satellite campus in space,” that will host several experiments.
Texas A&M seniors Coby Arnold and Arvind Subramanyam built the carrier that will bring the seeds to the ISS as their senior capstone project, under the guidance of Texas A&M viticulture specialist Justin Scheiner. Once the seeds leave the protection of Earth’s atmosphere, the extended exposure to space radiation could induce genetic mutations. According to Scheiner, the carrier will protect the seeds from harmful radiation exposure that could damage the seeds and prevent them from sprouting.
Once they are back on Earth, the seeds will be planted next to identical control seeds at the AgriLife Research vineyard at Thomas Ranch in central Texas. Scientists will then study differences in plant growth, vine and wine grape performance, and genetics between the seeds that went to space and the control seeds.
Three wine grape varieties were chosen to go to space based on their disease resistance and adaptations to soils and water conditions that help them thrive in Texas vineyards. One of three grape varieties is called lomanto. Horticulturist and pioneering viticulturist T.V. Munson developed the variety in 1902. Called “the grape man of Texas,” Munson and his lomanto grape is credited with helping save the global wine industry.
In the late 1800s, tiny aphid-like insects called phylloxera destroyed many of France’s vineyards. Lomanto is a hardy vine that is naturally resistant to several diseases and droughts, and Munson sent lomanto vines to help fortify French vineyards. Scheiner said this new mission represents a “full circle” moment for the historic vine with roots in the Lone Star State.
“The research will help us understand how different levels of radiation impact the seeds and their varietal genetic expression once we grow them, but there is also the novelty that in several years we will potentially be bottling wine from seeds that left Earth,” Scheiner said in a statement.
Testing the seeds in such a stressful and alien environment could help scientists produce more resilient, adaptive, and productive plants. The knowledge gained from experiments like this and understanding mutations could benefit future space missions and crop production on Earth.
Mutations have long shaped horticulture and wine production throughout for centuries. For example, pinot gris originated from just one mutation that yielded the ever popular pinot noir wine grapes.
“From a research standpoint, we want to see how being in space might influence these varieties,” Scheiner said. “For the wine geek in me, it would be very interesting if these seeds show some random positive mutation.” Who knows maybe the next pinot noir will come from space seeds?
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