article_snippet.sent: An experiment on the ISS the ISS will investigate whether plants are able to use a sixth sense while in space - a sense of gravity.
article_snippet.sent: An experiment on the ISS the ISS will investigate whether plants are able to use a sixth sense while in space - a sense of gravity.
article_snippet.sent: Called the Plant Gravity Sensing study, the Plant Gravity Sensing study will be conducted when new supplies are taken to the ISS by a SpaceX Dragon capsule on 13 April.
article_snippet.sent: Scientists will be examining whether a plant’s ability to work out which way a plant’s is growing - the gravity sensor - can form in the absence of gravity.
article_snippet.sent: Results will show if the plants can sense changes in gravity, and adapt levels of calcium in the plants cells to compensate for it.
article_snippet.sent: In particular, scientists think particles in plant cells that store and process starch for energy - amyloplast - may form in the direction of gravitational pull.
article_snippet.sent: Without gravity, though, scientists will be keen to see whether the same components can still assemble to make the plant grow in a certain direction.
article_snippet.sent: The gravity sensor of the plant could be regulated to account for the different gravity on another planet - such as Mars, where it is a third of Earth’s.
article_snippet.sent: We may design plants that respond to gravity vector changes more efficiently than wild ones,’ said Dr Hitoshi Tatsumi from the Nagoya University in Japan, who is running the experiment.
highlights_snippet.sent: Researchers will monitor how Researchers grow without influence of gravity .
  