[Experiments with growing plants on orbital stations Saliut-5, Saliut-6 and Saliut-7]

The experiments with air-dry Crepis capillaris seeds flown on the spacecraft Soyuz-16 and orbital stations Salyut-5, Salyut-6 and Salyut-7 showed that the number of aberrant cells in the seedlings grown during flight (experimental) and after flight (flight control) was higher than that in the ground-based control. This number was greater in the experimental seedlings than in the flight controls. The plants Arabidopsis thaliana grew from cotyledons to flowers during flight. The seeds developed postflight exhibited a lower fertility and a higher frequency of recessive mutants (Experiment Svetoblock-1). The greater number of mutants persisted in the progeny of plants that completed their developmental cycle (Experiment Phyton-3). Inhibited viability of germs manifested as a reduced germination rate of flown seeds and a premature death of seedlings. In the first postflight generation the lesions produced by large chromosome aberrations were eliminated and the lesions caused by gene mutations and micro-aberrations were retained.