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The FixBox: Hardware to Provide on-Orbit Fixation Capabilities to the EMCS on the ISS

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Abstract

Plant biology is an important area for the future of space exploration, but biological spaceflight experiments have been always constrained by the hardware capabilities. The European Modular Cultivation System (EMCS) unit was an incubator for small organisms, such as Arabidopsis thaliana, built by the European Space Agency (ESA) and was decommissioned in 2018. Here, we describe the FixBox system as add-on hardware to provide fixation capabilities to the plant growth cassettes, which, initially, were not designed to be used for that purpose. Tests were performed to ensure the successful use of this device in the EMCS facility. We also evaluate the required adaptations to the hardware, e.g., to guarantee that the reduced fluid motion in microgravity does not cause any bubbles that could impair the quality of fixation. Arabidopsis thaliana seedlings grown during spaceflight were fixed in the FixBox either in glutaraldehyde or formaldehyde. Electron microscopical images and confocal microscopy immunofluorescent localizations showed an excellent preservation of both cell ultrastructure and antigen conformation. Thus, it is possible to modify existing hardware to comply with the scientific requirements to augment the existing capabilities on board the ISS. In addition, it is also possible to reuse culture chambers from predesigned experimental containers into new modular subunits as FixBox. Similarly, we can design new hardware compatible with a novel cultivation chamber on board, such as is available in BIOLAB, to be used later with FixBox. Lessons learned for future space plant biology researchers include how to manage the number of hardware requirements and constraints on how to preserve the biological samples.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the skillful technical assistance of Mrs. Mercedes Carnota (CIB-CSIC), the generous supply of anti-nucleolin antibodies by Dr. Julio Sáez-Vásquez (University of Perpignan-CNRS, Perpignan, France), the fine support of NASA’s Ames Research Center in the use of Tropi hardware, the European Space Agency, and the Norwegian User Support and Operations Center (N-USOC) for their continuous support throughout the entire “Seedling Growth” space project including the supplementary material video recording. Finally, we would like to thank the astronauts on board the ISS for their fine work.

Funding

This work was supported by the Agencia Estatal de Investigación of the Spanish Ministry of Science an Innovation, Grants #ESP2015–64323-R and #RTI2018–099309-B-I00 (co-funded by EU-ERDF), awarded to FJM, and by pre-doctoral fellowships to (AM), (MV) and (AV) from the Spanish National Program for Young Researchers Training (MINECO, Ref. BES-2013-063933, BES-2016-077976). This research was supported also by grants (NNX12A0656 and 80NSSC17K0546) from NASA to JZK. The Seedling Growth Project spaceflights and activities to the ISS were funded by ILSRA2009–0932/1177 of ESA-ELIPS Program. The FixBox has been built under a contract to SENER Aeroespacial SA by ESA (4000105697/12/NL/FC) to support the SG project.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas Margarita Salas, Ramiro de Maeztu 9, 28040, Madrid, Spain

    Aránzazu Manzano, Miguel A. Valbuena, Alicia Villacampa, Malgorzata Ciska, F. Javier Medina & Raúl Herranz

  2. SENER Aeroespacial SA, Creu Casas i Sicart 86-88, 08290, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Barcelona, Spain

    Eva Creus & Albert Tomás

  3. Department of Biology, Miami University, Oxford, OH, 45056, USA

    Richard E. Edelmann

  4. Department of Biology, University of North Carolina-Greensboro, Greensboro, NC, 27402, USA

    John Z. Kiss

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  1. Aránzazu Manzano
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  2. Eva Creus
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Correspondence to Raúl Herranz.

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This article belongs to the Topical Collection: The Effect of Gravity on Physical and Biological Phenomena

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ESM 1

Multimedia file. Video recording of the orbital operations performed by the Astronaut Jack “2Fish” Fisher during the orbital Seedling Growth 3 operations (June 2017, extracting the CC from the EMCS EU and assembling the FixBoxes for fixation) captured during spaceflight monitoring activities at N-USOC (Trondheim, Norway)). (MP4 54808 kb)

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Manzano, A., Creus, E., Tomás, A. et al. The FixBox: Hardware to Provide on-Orbit Fixation Capabilities to the EMCS on the ISS. Microgravity Sci. Technol. 32, 1105–1120 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12217-020-09837-5

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