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What was the size of the module the C.
elegans were sustained in during the trip to and from the Space Station?
The worm cultures were grown in several collapsible gas-permeable bags and
were placed in an experimental container measuring 10 x 5 x 1 centimeters. The
experiment container was a metal box with a series of holes poked into it. These
holes allowed the worms to breath air from the Soyuz launch vehicle and International
Space Station environment. These experiment containers were placed in an insulated
box, like what you pack food in when you go on a picnic, called an incubator/cooler.
The dimensions of the incubator cooler are 37 x 37 x 37 centimeters.
Were all the C. elegans traveling
at the same life cycle stage or were there variations of life stages to study
the effects of birth and death of the specimens?
A variety of different ages were loaded 6 days prior to the Soyuz launch.
Were the C. elegans laboratory grown
or taken from a natural habitat location?
The worms that were flown were adapted to the media that they live in and were
grown in the laboratory. The original worms that they came from were isolated
from the field. They were isolated from mushroom compost near Bristol England.
The worms from the field were grown for a long time in a laboratory and were
then deposited as the N2 strain in a C. elegans stock center to be used
by investigators around the world to study multiple questions.
Did you expect the C. elegans to
reproduce normally in space? If so, how many more did you expect to bring back?
Previous experiments with C. elegans in space have demonstrated that C. elegans
can reproduce on solid media with bacteria as the food source. The worms flown
on ICE-FIRST also reproduced in the liquid media.
Will radiation exposure from being outside
the atmosphere harm the C. elegans in any way?
No changes were in mutation rate were observed. On the Shuttle, Soyuz or on the
International Space Station organisms are exposed to a different spectrum of
radiation than on Earth. This is one area in which C. elegans can provide
valuable information to predict the health consequences to the crew of this exposure.
Two shuttle flights have demonstrated an increased rate of mutation in C.
elegans, which were attributed to space radiation in microgravity. More experiments
are planned to provide more information.
Do they live longer in their nutrient
rich broth vs. living in dirt?
The life span of C. elegans on Earth in the rich nutrient broth is much
longer than the life span when they are grown on agar plates with bacteria as
a food source and even longer than when the C. elegans live in dirt. Things
that can influence life span include food availability and temperature. The animals
living in dirt experience more temperature fluctuations and a more varied, sometimes
less adequate food source than animals in the lab. Even in the lab, the bacteria
on the cultured plates only live for 1 - 2 weeks and then the C. elegans would
need to be moved to a fresh plate. The liquid nutrient broth used for ICE provides
everything that the C. elegans need to allow them to live for three months
or more, whereas the standard life span on a petri dish or free-living in the
soil would be two to three weeks.
Do we know how active they are normally
during day and/or evening hours? If we did, did we know what to expect in a confined
space?
C. elegans have the same activity during the day and night. They continuously
move about and eat. In a confined space, they will move as much as they can.
The confined space would have to be quite small considering that they are only
1 millimeter in length.
Were they be kept in total darkness?
For the ICE mission, the worm cultures were maintained in aluminum "cassettes".
Within these cassettes it is dark. Worms don't have eyes and may not detect light
at all.
Were they observed, upon return or until
they die?
Some of the worm specimens were preserved on orbit prior to return. The majority
of worms returned to earth alive were not kept alive but were frozen and used
for genetic and other analyses. However, some of the worms will be maintained
in liquid culture. Eventually, the worms that traveled in space died and only
their progeny remain.
Were future generations of these worms
kept for observations?
Yes, upon returning to Earth, some of the worms were maintained in liquid culture.
Eventually, the worms that traveled in space died and only their progeny remains.
Who was responsible for this experiment?
What facility did they come from?
With the support of the European Space Agency and the Space Research Organisation
of the Netherlands, the French Space Agency had assembled a team of scientist
from France, Canada, Japan and the United States of America. NASA, and scientists
at NASA Ames Research Center in California were responsible for the American
part of the experiment. We encourage you to check out the Dutch Experiment Support
Center website at
http://www.desc.med.vu.nl/NL-taxi/ICE/ICE-page1.htm
for a description of the experiments and scientists involved with this mission.
For additional details on the science, please see the multi-language booklet
that is available through this website by clicking on the ICE Mission logo and
clicking the link under the title, "ICE - First Of Worms and Men Book".
Was this the first worm experiment in a
series?
At this point, there are no additional ICE experiments planned. This was
the 2nd in a series of experiments using the axomic food, the 1st was on STS-107.
However, the information that the scientists received from the ICE-First experiments
could provide great insight into radiobiology, muscle proteins, cells, genomics,
ageing, development, and apoptosis (when the cell dies as a result of age or
poor cell health).
Can you please discuss the results of the ICE mission?
The results from the ICE mission won't be known for several months as it takes
a great deal of time for scientists to carefully perform the analyses, compile
and analyze the data and formulate conclusions. However, we do know that Andre
Kuipers, the Dutch Astronaut, performed on orbit procedures to fix two of the
samples on April 25 and two samples on April 27. All of the C. elegans
samples were packaged into the Soyuz capsule for the return to Earth on April
29. The Soyuz capsule with the 3 Astronauts and the ICE samples landed in Koutanaï,
Kazakhstan at 00:11 GMT on April 30. ICE samples were received for processing
at 02:00 GMT at the landing site. Two ICE samples were video taped for a short
time. Samples fixed on orbit in addition to some live samples, were transferred
to a 10° C transport container. The remaining samples were frozen and transferred
to a -150° C transport container. Sample processing was completed at about
02:15 GMT and samples were returned to Moscow, and subsequently to Toulouse.
In Toulouse scientists distributed the samples to the various international investigators.
Investigators collected preliminary data and confirmed that the worms could survive
and reproduce in the space environment in the liquid culture media, an important
question for this new culture system. Samples were subsequently returned to the
science laboratories within Canada, France, Japan and the United States. Investigators
will be examining aspects of development throughout the life cycle, genome stability,
gene expression, microtubules and microfilaments, worm muscle physiology, meiotic
chromosomal dynamics and germ cell apoptosis. Many of the results will ultimately
be published in peer reviewed journals that are accessible to the public.
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