Transgenic Arabidopsis Plants as Monitors of Low Gravity and Magnetic Field E ects

Magnetic levitation experiments have been performed on arabidopsis plants equipped with a stress responsive reporter gene system Seedlings were levitated in a magnetic eld gradient B T and BrB T m for hours and control specimens were located at the center of the magnet B T and in a low eld B mT region The reporter gene qualitatively indicates that the levitated and the magnetic eld control specimens were di erentially stressed while the low eld controls indicated no stress These results suggest the need for more extensive experiments to determine the molecular consequences of levitation and high magnetic elds on plant growth and development