PLANT-METABOLISM IN THE CONDITIONS OF SPACE-FLIGHT

For the first time, vegetation of plants of radish and cabbage from a seed to the harvest age was performed in the conditions of space fligh t. The duration of the experiment was 54 days. The growth and developm ent of the plants lagged behind the Earth control, and the harvest was by 2-5 times lower than in the control. The radish plants formed root s. Some deviations were found in the plant metabolism. At a practicall y similar composition of the biomass of the experiment and control pla nts, the experimental ones manifested some differences in the fraction al composition of several compounds (nitrogen, phosphorus, carbohydrat es, lipids) at the account of decrease of compounds playing the primar y role in the energy exchange of the cell. A tendency was noticed towa rds a decrease of potassium content in the cells of the experiment pla nts. For other biogenic elements (iron, manganese, copper, zinc) there were no differences between the experiment and control. The obtained results did not show any difference in the plant metabolism which coul d testify to its impairment resulting in the death of the plants or im possibility of maintaining trophic connections in the future life supp ort systems.