The space environment poses many challenges for living organisms due to its hostile characteristics (ie low oxygen, microgravity, lower pressure, and radiation). The success of future long-term space exploration is dependent on the ability to sustain life by growing a food supply in the space environment. A recent publication by Dr Manian, “Detection of Genes in Arabidopsis thaliana L. Responding to DNA Damage from Radiation and Other Stressors in Spaceflight,” is based on the reanalysis of five transcriptional profiling datasets (OSD-7, OSD-37, OSD-38, OSD-46 and OSD-120) and details the effects of radiation on Arabidopsis thaliana. Dr Vidya Manian is from the University of Puerto Rico and contributes to the GeneLab Analysis Working Group (AWG). GeneLab recently spoke to Dr Manian about this work, which was funded by a NASA EPSCoR call for the reuse of GeneLab data and highlights how the GeneLab data systems (and AWG) enabled this reanalysis.
