Figure 1. Gene array.
In Figure 1, each cell culture condition; microgravity (panel a), 3g centrifuge (panel b), and RWV (panel c), is compared to a static non-adherent bag culture. In each panel, 10,000 individual genes are represented by individual dots. Shear stress proteins and heat shock proteins are shown in green, transcription factors in red.
Gene expression is displayed on a log scale to the base 2, with anything greater then 2 logs (4-fold change) outside the region of background noise. For each gene, the distance from the origin denotes level of gene expression, and movement on the x and y axes change in gene expression compared to the static bag control culture.
More than 1,600 genes change more than the specific threshold of 4-fold up and down in the flight (microgravity) culture [panel a], only a few genes in the centrifuge culture [panel b] and more than 200 genes in RWV culture [panel c].
This research was done in the Biological Specimen Temperature Controller (BSTC) on STS-90.
