The list of 40 types of seeds to be sent to the Chinese space station continues

Web Desk Friday, August 4, 2023 Beijing: China's space agency has said that more than 100 types of plant material, including 40 seeds, have been sent to the Tiangong space station for space breeding.

According to the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA), 136 species of plants have been sent to the Tiangong Space Station by 53 organizations at the end of May.

The samples included 47 crops including 12 seeds of commodity crops, 28 seeds of cash crops, seven species of alkali producing plants and 76 species of forest plants, grasses, flowers and medicinal plants.

The sent plants also contain 13 microorganisms, including agricultural and industrial microorganisms, edible fungi, algae and mosses.

Space breeding is a process involving exposing seeds to space radiation and microgravity for potentially useful genetic variants in the seed. The change can result in increased crop yields and make plants resistant to disease and blight.

China has been engaged in space breeding since the 1980s. Similar experiments are being conducted in the International Space Station.