as part of the project, which will be implemented during the first manned space mission of Turkey, experiments in the field of genetics in the space environment will be performed with the subsequent monitoring of their effectiveness.
During the mission dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the Turkish Republic, the astronaut will have to implement 13 different experiments prepared by universities and research institutes in Turkey.
One of these experiments represented by the Turkish Space Agency (TUA) and the Tübitak Research Institute of Space Technologies will be a “study of the effectiveness of CRISPR editing in plants in the conditions of microravitation”.
The purpose of the project is to study the effectiveness of the method of editing genomes using the CRISPR system (one of the most modern in this area) on plants in the conditions of microgravity, as well as the possibility of transferring genes and genetic manipulations in space.
The project coordinator is an employee of the Technical University Yyldyz Tugje Jelair. Shenay Vural Korkut from the same university, the power of Yigit and Rukh Service, one of the founders of the Mars on Earth (Moep).
also participate in its implementation.
Laboratory studies within the framework of the project began in March this year. At the next stage, it is planned to conduct experiments in zero gravity with the participation of the first Turkish astronaut.
In an interview with an anadol correspondent, Jelair said that experiments on plants have already been conducted as part of the project.
According to him, the priority of research is the analysis of experiments on the space platform at the molecular level, the preparation and optimization of materials for sending within the project.
The scientist said that the plant “Arabidopsis Thaliana” (Raudo -Verd) was chosen as a model organism for use in the project. The scientist explained that this plant was chosen due to its short germination time.
Jelair added that the study of Turkish scientists will become innovative in his field.
