Ultra large-scale 2D clinostats uncover environmentally derived variation in tomato responses to simulated microgravity

Plants grown in spaceflight exhibit differences in physiology and morphology compared to those grown on Earth. While changes in gravity are a major environmental change, other space-related stressors make it difficult to identify the microgravity-specific responses. These knowledge gaps can be filled by ground-based microgravity simulators, but these approaches have primarily been limited to smaller plants and seedlings. This study reports a set of ultra large-scale 2D clinostats that support the growth of plants beyond the seedling stage. Tomato plants were grown in five sequential trials under upright control and simulated microgravity conditions. We found that simulated microgravity impacted plant growth in each trial, but the response varied by trial. Analysis of environmental co-variates across trials revealed that temperature significantly contributed to variation in plant growth. Further, our results show that moderate heat stress can promote plant growth under simulated microgravity. Thus, this work demonstrates the potential of ultra large-scale clinostats to uncover interactions between the environmental and simulated microgravity, which alter plant growth.