Michael Stasiak’s research while affiliated with University of Guelph and other places

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Publications (46)


Effect of Reduced Atmospheric Pressure on Growth and Quality of Two Lettuce Cultivars
  • Article

June 2022

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83 Reads

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7 Citations

Life Sciences in Space Research

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N.C. Yorio

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S.L. Edney

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[...]

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Future space missions will likely include plants to provide fresh foods and bioregenerative life support capabilities. Current spacecraft such as the International Space Station (ISS) operate at 1 atm (101 kPa) pressure, but future missions will likely use reduced pressures to minimize gas leakage and facilitate rapid egress (space walks). Plants for these missions must be able to tolerate and grow reliably at these reduced pressures. We grew two lettuce cultivars, ‘Flandria’ a green bibb-type and ‘Outredgeous,’ a red, loose-leaf type, under three pressures: 96 kPa (ambient control), 67 kPa (2/3 atm), and 33 kPa (1/3 atm) for 21 days in rockwool using recirculating nutrient film technique hydroponics. Each treatment was repeated three times using a different hypobaric chamber each time. A daily light integral of 17.2 Moles Photosynthetically Active Radiation per day was provided with metal halide lamps set to deliver 300 µmol m⁻² s⁻¹ photosynthetic photon flux (PPF) for a 16-h photoperiod at 22 °C. Oxygen was maintained at 21 kPa (equal to 21% at 1 atm) and CO2 at 0.12 kPa (equal to 1200 ppm at 1 atm). Leaf area for ‘Outredgeous’ was reduced 20% and 38% at 67 kPa and 33 kPa respectively; shoot fresh mass was reduced 22% and 41% at 67 kPa and 33 kPa respectively when compared to control plants at 96 kPa. These trends were not statistically significant at P≥ 0.05. Leaf area for ‘Flandria’ showed no difference between 96 and 67 kPa but was reduced 31% at 33 kPa; shoot fresh mass was reduced 6% and 27% at 66 kPa and 33 kPa respectively compared to 96 kPa. There were 10% and 25% increases in anthocyanin concentration at 66 kPa and 33 kPa compared to 96 kPa, potentially increasing the bioprotective capacity of the plant. Previous studies with other cultivars of lettuce showed slight change in growth across this range of pressures, suggesting responses may vary among genotypes, hypobaric exposure treatments, and / or environmental conditions. Collectively, the findings suggest further testing is needed to understand the effects of atmospheric pressure on plant growth.


Fig. 1. Supplemental subcanopy light spectra. Red-blue subcanopy lighting (solid line) and Red-GreenBlue subcanopy lighting (dashed line).
Table 1 . Controlled environment chamber schedules for the various production phases of cannabis.
Fig. 2. Left: side view of LED lamp spacing on a bench of plants. Red-Blue, Red-Green-Blue, and control subcanopy lighting treatments are illustrated, respectively, by the pink, green, and black rectangles. Right: Top view. Treatment rows are indicated by the colored circles. Circles marked with an ''X'' were discarded.
Fig. 3. Total dry bud yields of five plants per treatment per crop cycle when grown with no subcanopy light (control), Red-Blue, or Red-Green-Blue (RGB) subcanopy light. Vertical bars indicate standard error. Horizontal disconnected bars indicate significant differences between treatments using Tukey's multiple comparisons test, a = 0.05.
Fig. 5. Cannabinoid concentrations in the upper and lower canopy of plants grown with control, Red-Blue, and Red-Green-Blue (RGB) subcanopy lighting. Filled diamonds indicate lower canopy; empty diamonds indicate upper canopy. Vertical bars indicate standard error. Shaded cells indicate a significant difference between canopy positions using Student's t test, a = 0.05. Delta 9-THCA = Delta 9-tetrahydrocannabinol-9-carboxylic acid; Delta 9-THC = Delta 9tetrahydrocannabinol; CBDA = cannabidiolic acid; CBD = cannabidiol; CBG = cannabigerol; CBGA = cannabigerolic acid.

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Improving Cannabis Bud Quality and Yield with Subcanopy Lighting
  • Article
  • Full-text available

November 2018

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8,637 Reads

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44 Citations

HortScience

The influence of light spectral quality on cannabis (Cannabis sativa L.) development is not well defined. It stands to reason that tailoring light quality to the specific needs of cannabis may increase bud quality, consistency, and yield. In this study, C. sativa L. ‘WP:Med (Wappa)’ plants were grown with either no supplemental subcanopy lighting (SCL) (control), or with red/blue (‘‘Red-Blue’’) or red-green-blue (‘‘RGB’’) supplemental SCL. Both Red-Blue and RGB SCL significantly increased yield and concentration of total D⁹-tetrahydrocannabinol (D⁹-THC) in bud tissue from the lower plant canopy. In the lower canopy, RGB SCL significantly increased concentrations of a-pinine and borneol, whereas both Red-Blue and RGB SCL increased concentrations of cis-nerolidol compared with the control treatment. In the upper canopy, concentrations of a-pinine, limonene, myrcene, and linalool were significantly greater with RGB SCL than the control, and cis-nerolidol concentration was significantly greater in both Red-Blue and RGB SCL treated plants relative to the control. Red-Blue SCL yielded a consistently more stable metabolome profile between the upper and lower canopy than RGB or control treated plants, which had significant variation in cannabigerolic acid (CBGA) concentrations between the upper and lower canopies. Overall, both Red-Blue and RGB SCL treatments significantly increased yield more than the control treatment, RGB SCL had the greatest impact on modifying terpene content, and Red-Blue produced a more homogenous bud cannabinoid and terpene profile throughout the canopy. These findings will help to inform growers in selecting a production light quality to best help them meet their specific production goals. © 2018, American Society for Horticultural Science. All rights reserved.

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Patterns of Arabidopsis gene expression in the face of hypobaric stress

July 2017

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443 Reads

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12 Citations

AoB Plants

Extreme hypobaria is a novel abiotic stress that is outside the evolutionary experience of terrestrial plants. In natural environments, the practical limit of atmospheric pressure experienced by higher plants is about 50 kPa or about 0.5 atmospheres; a limit that is primarily imposed by the combined stresses inherent to high altitude conditions of terrestrial mountains. However, in highly controlled chambers, and within projected extra-terrestrial greenhouses, the atmospheric pressure component can be isolated from the associated high altitude stresses such as temperature, desiccation and even hypoxia. Such chambers allow the exploration of hypobaria as a single variable that can be carried to extremes beyond what is possible in terrestrial biomes. Here, we examine the organ-specific progression of transcriptional strategies for the physiological adaptation to various degrees of hypobaric stress, as well as the response to severe hypobaria over time. An abrupt transition from a near-sea level pressure of 97 kPa to a mere 5 kPa is accompanied by the differential expression of hundreds of genes, primarily those associated with drought, hypoxia and cell wall metabolism. However, pressure transitions between these two extremes reveals that plants respond with complex, organ-specific transcriptomic responses, which also vary over time. These responses are not linear; neither with respect to the gradient of hypobaric severity from 75, 50, 25 to 10 kPa, nor with the duration of exposure of up to 3 days at 10 kPa. In the first few hours of hypobaria, plants engage changes in basic metabolism and hormonally mediated growth and development. After 12 or more hours of hypobaria, the gene expression patterns are more indicative of hypoxia and drought environmental responses. The hypobaria transcription patterns were highly organ specific, and roots appeared to be more sensitive to hypobaria than shoots in that the number of differentially expressed genes was higher in roots than in shoots. The patterns of gene expression among organs, across a gradient of atmospheric pressures and over time suggest that plants adapt to the novel stress of pure hypobaria by using recognizablemetabolisms to meet appropriately interpreted hypoxia stresses, while engaging drought responses that are seemingly inappropriate to the wet and humid environment of the chambers.



Advanced Life Support Research and Technology Transfer at the University of Guelph

April 2017

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1,282 Reads

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6 Citations

Research and technology developments surrounding Advanced Life-Support (ALS) began at the University of Guelph in 1992 as the Space and Advanced Life Support Agriculture (SALSA) program, which now represents Canada’s primary contribution to ALS research. The early focus was on recycling hydroponic nutrient solutions, atmospheric gas analysis and carbon balance, sensor research and development, inner/intra-canopy lighting and biological filtration of air in closed systems. With funding from federal, provincial and industry partners, a new generation of technology emerged to address the challenges of deploying biological systems as fundamental components of life-support infrastructure for long-duration human space exploration. Accompanying these advances were a wide range of technology transfer opportunities in the agri-food and health sectors, including air and water remediation, plant and environment sensors, disinfection technologies, recyclable growth substrates and advanced light emitting diode (LED) lighting systems. This report traces the evolution of the SALSA program and catalogues the benefits of ALS research for terrestrial and non-terrestrial applications.


Figure S1

April 2017

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15 Reads

Differentially expressed genes in response to 50 kPa/NormOx (50 kPa/pO2 = 21 kPa) and 25 kPa/NormOx (25 kPa/pO2 = 21 kPa) in roots and shoots of 10 d plants. There are 40 genes showing statistically significant (p < 0.01) differential expression by at least 2-fold in at least in one of 50 kPa/NormOx and 25 kPa/NormOx in roots, and 3 genes in shoots. Heat map was graphed according to log value of fold change. Fill colors correspond to Figure 5A.


Dissecting Low Atmospheric Pressure Stress: Transcriptome Responses to the Components of Hypobaria in Arabidopsis

April 2017

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294 Reads

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24 Citations

Controlled hypobaria presents biology with an environment that is never encountered in terrestrial ecology, yet the apparent components of hypobaria are stresses typical of terrestrial ecosystems. High altitude, for example, presents terrestrial hypobaria always with hypoxia as a component stress, since the relative partial pressure of O2 is constant in the atmosphere. Laboratory-controlled hypobaria, however, allows the dissection of pressure effects away from the effects typically associated with altitude, in particular hypoxia, as the partial pressure of O2 can be varied. In this study, whole transcriptomes of plants grown in ambient (97 kPa/pO2 = 21 kPa) atmospheric conditions were compared to those of plants transferred to five different atmospheres of varying pressure and oxygen composition for 24 h: 50 kPa/pO2 = 10 kPa, 25 kPa/pO2 = 5 kPa, 50 kPa/pO2 = 21 kPa, 25 kPa/pO2 = 21 kPa, or 97 kPa/pO2 = 5 kPa. The plants exposed to these environments were 10 day old Arabidopsis seedlings grown vertically on hydrated nutrient plates. In addition, 5 day old plants were also exposed for 24 h to the 50 kPa and ambient environments to evaluate age-dependent responses. The gene expression profiles from roots and shoots showed that the hypobaric response contained more complex gene regulation than simple hypoxia, and that adding back oxygen to normoxic conditions did not completely alleviate gene expression changes in hypobaric responses.


Table S1

April 2017

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10 Reads

Full list of differentially expressed genes in response to 50 kPa and 50 kPa/NormOx (50 kPa/pO2 = 21 kPa) in roots and shoots of 10 d plants. There are 151 genes that present significant (p < 0.01) differential expression by at least 2-fold in at least one condition (including responses to 50 kPa and 50 kPa/NormOx in roots or shoots) in 10 d plants. The differentially expressed genes are categorized according to log value of fold change and GO terms of biological process are listed for each gene clade.


Figure S2

April 2017

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25 Reads

Confirmation of gene expression profiles using qRT-PCR. The transcript levels of AHB1 (AT2G16060) and PDC1 (AT4G33070) were determined by Taqman quantitative RT-PCR for RNA samples from the same 10 d roots tissues used for microarray analysis and additional experimental replications. The UBQ11 (AT4G05050) was used as the internal control. The Log2 fold-change of expression level relative to 97 kPa control for each sample was shown. Data are means ± SE (n = 3). Color bars represent Log2 fold-change in microarray data. Filled colors correspond to Figure 5A.


Table S3

April 2017

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9 Reads

Full list of differentially expressed genes in response to 25 kPa, 25 kPa/NormOx (25 kPa/pO2 = 21 kPa), and 97 kPa/HypOx (97 kPa/pO2 = 5 kPa) in roots and shoots of 10 d plants. There are 372 genes showing statistically significant (p < 0.01) differential expression by at least 2-fold in at least one condition—including responses to 25 kPa, 25 kPa/NormOx, and 97 kPa/HypOx in roots and shoots. The differentially expressed genes are categorized according to cluster through log value of fold change and GO terms of biological process are listed for each gene clade. Among these, there are 93 genes showing differential expression by at least 1.8-fold between responses to 25 kPa and 25 kPa/NormOx, and 5 genes in comparison between 25 kPa and 97 kPa/HypOx in roots. For shoots, there are 44 and 11 genes in comparison between 25 kPa and 25 kPa/NormOx and between 25 kPa and 97 kPa/HypOx, respectively. For core hypoxia genes, 34 of them are included in 372 differentially expressed genes associated with 25 kPa atmosphere.


Citations (24)


... This is because of the challenging technical requirements for truly separating highly intercorrelated variables such as temperature and air pressure. To date, the effects of low air pressure have been tested especially on human or animal physiology [29] and in the context of space and Mars exploration programs [30,31]. Additionally, some studies on model plants are conducted in growth chambers [24,32]. ...

Reference:

Short-term impact of low air pressure on plants’ functional traits
Effect of Reduced Atmospheric Pressure on Growth and Quality of Two Lettuce Cultivars
  • Citing Article
  • June 2022

Life Sciences in Space Research

... Scientific understanding of optimal growth conditions for medical cannabis is limited, largely because such details are often closely guarded as proprietary business strategies (Hawley et al., 2018). The nascent stage of the medical cannabis industry, coupled with the transition towards light emitting diode (LED) lighting technologies, underscores the necessity for research-driven cultivation approaches. ...

Improving Cannabis Bud Quality and Yield with Subcanopy Lighting

HortScience

... In fact, mass reduction increases the space mission length and launched payloads 87 . However, alterations in atmospheric pressure are known to have effects on the physiology and development of plants 88 . Clarifying the mechanisms behind the physiological adaptation of plants to hypobaria is therefore very relevant to space exploration in the effort to expand food production in orbital and extra-terrestrial controlled agriculture. ...

Patterns of Arabidopsis gene expression in the face of hypobaric stress

AoB Plants

... In Canada, the Controlled Environment Systems Facility at the University of Guelph provides a complete research venue (comprising 24 sealed chambers) suitable for measurement of plant growth, gas exchange, volatile organic compound evolution and nutrient use in a precisely controlled environment. Some hypobaric chambers also allow a variable pressure and are capable of sustaining a vacuum (Bamsey et al., 2009;Dixon et al., 2017). ...

Advanced Life Support Research and Technology Transfer at the University of Guelph

... This decline in the availability of gases is theorized to have important consequences on living organisms, the extent of which is not well known [13], although it can significantly influence respiratory activity in animals, leaf gas exchange in plants, and metabolic activities of certain microorganisms [13][14][15]. Specifically, plants can react differently to novel atmospheric conditions due to their different physiological tolerances and adaptability to, for example, decreased CO 2 and O 2 partial pressures [16,17]. Their responses to novel conditions are shaped by their morphological and eco-physiological traits [18]. ...

Dissecting Low Atmospheric Pressure Stress: Transcriptome Responses to the Components of Hypobaria in Arabidopsis

... Each crop was inoculated with a commercial PGPM mixture, and the composition of the microbial communities associated with their root rhizosphere, rhizoplane/endosphere and with the recirculating nutrient solution. PGPM treated plants were proved to be more stable over time highlighting the potential benefits that PGPMs may confer to plants grown in hydroponic systems, particularly when cultivated in harsh environmental conditions (Sheridan et al., 2017). Some important and beneficial species of PGPMs for plants growing hydroponically includes Pseudomonas (bean, carnation, chickpea, cucumber, lettuce, peppers, potato, radish, tomato), Bacillus (carrot, chrysanthemum, cucumber, lettuce, pepper, tomato), Enterobacter (cucumber) Streptomyces (cucumber, tomato), Gliocladium (cucumber, tomato), Trichoderma (bean, cotton, cucumber, maize, rice) (Lee and Lee, 2015) Scientists implemented hydroponic systems for growing Lotus japonicus and rice and evaluated Arbuscular mycorrhiza (AM) co-cultivation to research on the mechanism of plant nutrition and fungal spore amplification. ...

Microbial Community Dynamics and Response to Plant Growth-Promoting Microorganisms in the Rhizosphere of Four Common Food Crops Cultivated in Hydroponics

Microbial Ecology

... Следует отметить, что на антарктических зарубежных станциях, имеющих системы выращивания растений в отдельных помещениях (американская Южная полярная станция, японская станция «Syowa», южно-корейская станция «Jang Bogo», новозеландская станция «Scott Base»), в контейнерах (немецкая станция «Neumayer III» -функционирование теплицы Eden-ISS, 2018-2021 годы, станция республики Корея «King Sejong»), в отдельных тепличных сооружениях (станция »Великая китайская стена», КНР), наряду с листовыми овощными культурами, выращивались растения томата, огурца, перца и др., используя гидропонные, аэропонные и аэропонногидропонные технологии (32)(33)(34). ...

Early Trade-offs and Top-Level Design Drivers for Antarctic Greenhouses and Plant Production Facilities

... Quality analysis showed no effects on nutrients or flavour of radish grown at 98, 66, and 33 kPa total pressure and 21 kPa pO 2 (up to 21:11, O 2 :N 2 and 64 % O 2 ) (Levine et al., 2008). In a long-term experiment in the CESRF chambers, lettuce performed well at 25 kPa total pressure and 20 kPa pO 2 , a ratio of 5:1, O 2 :N 2 and an 80 % O 2 atmosphere (Dixon et al., 2005). In combination with the work of Wehkamp, these results suggested a ratio of 5:1, O 2 :N 2 could support lettuce function at a lower total pressure. ...

Physiological Responses of Lettuce ( Lactuca sativa ) to Reduced Atmospheric Pressure
  • Citing Article
  • July 2005

SAE Technical Papers

... The idea of this experiment initially originated from considerations about the design goals of a greenhouse to be installed as part of a first settlement on the Mars planet by human crews. There is no doubt that the first Mars human crews will grow up to some extent part of their own food, most likely in a hydroponic environment [8], but using special potting soil or even Martian soil is not excluded. Beside allowing to grow vegetables and plants for eventual consumption, a growing facility would provide also a garden-like area where astronauts could attend plants and relax possibly reminding them of an earth-like environment. ...

Physiological Aspects of Integrated Crop Production in Advanced Life Support Systems
  • Citing Article
  • July 1998

SAE Technical Papers

... These results were attributed primarily to the increased blue light within the supplemental light spectrum (Litvin et al., 2020). An intracanopy lighting trial on soybean, which has a similar architecture to bush bean, demonstrated that increasing the amount of intracanopy light resulted in more compact plant architecture and increased the amount of fruit produced compared to plants grown with overhead lighting alone (Stasiak et al., 1999). Intracanopy lighting experiments conducted on greenhouse vine crops (tomato, cucumber, and pepper) have increased fruit production compared to overhead lighting alone (Pettersen et al., 2010;Goḿez & Mitchell, 2016;Shang et al., 2018). ...

Light piping to the inner plant canopy enhances plant growth and increases O2, CO2, H2O and ethylene gas exchange rates

SAE Technical Papers