Recent transcriptomic studies to elucidate the plant adaptive response to spaceflight and to simulated space environments

22 p.-3 fig.-5 tab.Discovering the adaptation mechanisms of plants to the space environment is essential for supporting human space exploration. Transcriptomic analyses allow the identification of adaptation response pathways by detecting changes in gene expression at the global genome level caused by the main factors of the space environment, namely altered gravity and cosmic radiation. This article reviews transcriptomic studies carried out from plants grown in spaceflights and in different ground-based microgravity simulators. Despite differences in plant growth conditions, these studies have shown that cell wall remodeling, oxidative stress, defense response, and photosynthesis are common altered processes in plants grown under spaceflight conditions. European scientists have significantly contributed to the acquisition of this knowledge, e.g., by showing the role of red light in the adaptation response of plants (EMCS experiments) and the mechanisms of cellular response and adaptation mostly affecting cell cycle regulation, using cell cultures in microgravity simulators.All listed authors are members of the ESA Space Omics Topical Team, funded by the ESA grant/contract 4000131202/20/NL/PG/pt “Space Omics: Towards an integrated ESA/NASA–omics database for spaceflight and ground facilities experiments” awarded to RH. Individual authors also acknowledge support from: the French Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales grant DAR 2020–4800001004 , 2021–4800001117 to ECD; the Spanish Plan Estatal de Investigación Científica y Desarrollo Tecnológico ( Agencia Estatal de Investigación , Ministry of Science and Innovation ) grant RTI2018-099309-B-I00 to FJM, including a a contract of the Spanish National Program for Young Researchers Training to AM.Peer reviewe