Sustained Growth and Terpenoid Indole Alkaloid Biosynthesis in the Medicinal Plant Catharanthus roseus under Simulated Microgravity

Ruiqing Lyu; Yinghui Meng; Zehui Jiang; Wenbo Zhang; Haozhen Nie; Yayun Deng; Tiechen Shen; Jun Yang; Ling Yuan; Hongxia Wang

doi:10.1016/j.eng.2025.10.006

Engineering ›› DOI: 10.1016/j.eng.2025.10.006

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Sustained Growth and Terpenoid Indole Alkaloid Biosynthesis in the Medicinal Plant Catharanthus roseus under Simulated Microgravity

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Abstract

As humanity prepares for long-duration space missions, sustainable life-support systems that integrate food, oxygen, and pharmaceutical production are essential. Catharanthus roseus (C. roseus), a medicinal plant that produces clinically important terpenoid indole alkaloids (TIAs) such as the anticancer drugs vinblastine and vincristine, offers unique potential for in situ therapeutic biomanufacturing. However, whether specialized metabolism can be maintained under microgravity (MG) remains unclear. Here, we demonstrate that C. roseus can complete its full life cycle under simulated MG using a three-dimensional (3D) clinostat. MG-grown plants showed increased biomass and successfully flowered. Morphological and transcriptomic analyses revealed that MG induces developmental changes and broad transcriptional reprogramming, particularly in auxin signaling, oxidative stress responses, and meristem regulatory pathways. Single-cell transcriptomic integration revealed that MG-responsive genes are enriched in mesophyll, epidermal, and idioblast cells, which are key sites of TIA biosynthesis. Importantly, MG had only modest effects on TIA production. Expression of core biosynthetic genes remained essentially unchanged, and metabolomic analyses confirmed that catharanthine and vindoline levels were stable in young leaves. At the same time, vinblastine and anhydrovinblastine showed slight reductions in mature tissues. Collectively, our findings provide scientific evidence that a pharmacologically valuable plant can reproduce and maintain specialized metabolism under microgravity analog conditions. C. roseus thus emerges as a promising dual-use crop for future space-based life-support systems, capable of contributing both to crew health and therapeutic self-sufficiency.

Keywords

Simulated microgravity / Space agriculture / Medicinal plant / Catharanthus roseus / Plant specialized metabolites

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Ruiqing Lyu, Yinghui Meng, Zehui Jiang, Wenbo Zhang, Haozhen Nie, Yayun Deng, Tiechen Shen, Jun Yang, Ling Yuan, Hongxia Wang. Sustained Growth and Terpenoid Indole Alkaloid Biosynthesis in the Medicinal Plant Catharanthus roseus under Simulated Microgravity. Engineering DOI:10.1016/j.eng.2025.10.006

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