Martian soil is generally poor for growing plants, but researchers at the University of Arkansas have used CRISPR to create gene-edited rice that can germinate and grow despite hostile habitat. If, as is the ambition of some scientists, humanity ends up colonizing Mars instead of trying to save Earth, it will be a matter, among other things, of not starving and dying.

In fact, a research group at the University of Arkansas has worked on developing a variety of rice that can likely grow on Mars. It must be said that Martian soil is much less suitable for cultivation than that of the Earth, as it is composed mainly of sand, dust, and rocks. In addition, it contains elements that can be very toxic (such as perchlorates) to land plants and is poor in nutrients.

Based on this observation, the team led by Abhilash Ramachandran, PhD in atmospheric sciences, worked to produce rice capable of withstanding such conditions, and even fully flourishing there. His experiments consisted mainly of growing rice on different types of substrates composed of Martian artificial soil and conventional soil for pots, varying the proportion of each.

The results obtained indicate that rice develops as well when the mixture contains only 25% soil as when it contains 100%. However, the higher the concentration of regolith (the name given to the layer of dust that serves as soil for the planet Mars), the more the aerial part is reduced and the roots elongated, characteristic of soils lacking nutrients. "The root will exploit the subsoil for nutrients, but there is not," Abhilash Ramachandran said.

Source: Agrolink