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Interactions between organisms and species have been long known. It has not been known that the interactive phenomena (allelopathy) may (or may not) differ in space from those on earth. We have studied the gravitational effects on allelopathy by exposing a plant-plant system to pseudo-microgravity, which was generated by a 3D-clinostat. We hypothesized that allelopathy would be modified under altered gravity. L-DOPA (L-3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine) is known to be the major substance in the allelopathy of velvet bean, released from its root. It has been found that there have been some differences of the allelopathic action of velvet bean plant under pseudo-microgravity. Biosynthesis, release, transport and sensing mechanism associated with allelopathy might be affected by gravity.

Form of plant body shows vertical polarity. Photosynthetic organs deploy upwards to seek light. Root system extends downward for water. In addition to this major polarity, flowers has similar features, because they bloom in the world where up and down asymmetry dominates. Many flowering plants co-evolved with pollinator animals. Success of their reproduction is linked to the shape of flower organs in many ways. Orientation of inflorescence and each individual flowers, arrangement and shape of flower organs exhibit various up and down asymmetry. Some flowers mimic female of its pollinator animal. In such case, posture of the target animal is copied to the flower. Since animal posture and shape have vertical polarity, flower happens to equip same kind of polarity. Tropic response of pistils is another up and down feature that improves fitness of flowering plants. Certain lily flowers show phototropism to bend pistil upward. Azalea flower depends on gravity as the major environmental cue, and light as the secondary signal for up. Molecular machinery for those tropic responses seems to be shared with other tropism expressed in shoot and root. However, certain differences are found in distribution of sediment amyloplast, or spatial allocation of photo-sensing and bending site. Tropic responses result in adaptation of those flowers against behavior of pollinator animals and terrestrial environment, where gravity affects living organisms and interaction among them.

Velvet bean (Mucuna pruriens L.) has been found that the degree of suppression on the lettuce root growth by velvet bean was less on the 3D-clinorotation. The number and growth of adventitious root in velvet bean differed among the clinostated and control group. L-DOPA (L-3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine) is known to be the major substance in the allelopathy of velvet bean plant, released from its root. Since L-DOPA is a precursor of melanin pigment, and is easily converted to melanin by oxidation, locality of L-DOPA production in the plant body can be seen through pigmentation. The amount of L-DOPA was analyzed by HPLC and LC-ESI/MS. The distribution of L-DOPA in the root was different among the ground control condition and pseudo-microgravity.

Flower shape shows up and down features in many cases. Pistils of lily flower, Lilium cv. 'Casablanca', bend upward by sensing exclusively light. There found no sediment amyloplast in pistil corresponding to the absence of gravitropism. Fine granules of amyloplast disappear from pistil and tepal after opening of flower, except stomatal guard cells distributed on their epidermis. Bending of pistil caused by phototropism occurs when rate of its local elongation passes maximum and decreases. Elongation of pistil starts from its basal part close to ovary, and propagate toward distal tip afterwards. Bending of pistil follows this propagation. Because of this feature, curvature of pistil tends to be rather steep at the basal part. From spot irradiation experiment, site of sensing light was found not spatially separated by twice of diameter from site of bending.

Many flowers have coevolved with their pollinator animals. Gravity has been one of selection pressure for the evolution of flowers. Gravity rules morphology and other features of flowers in many aspects. Pair matching between the flower and its specific pollinator is one of factors that determine the fitness of both sides. Evolution of flower morphology and its molecular basis are reviewed briefly. Anemophilous flowers are also under the influence of gravity. Shape and other features of entomophilous flowers have been highly diversed. Gravitropic response and its mechanism are summarized. Recent findings on gravitropism and phototropism of pistils and stamens are presented in this article.

Pistil and stamen of lily flowers bend upward. Such tropic response at sensing external stimuli increases the success of pollination in these flowers and improve their adaptability. They do not bend under the dark, but toward light irradiated. From these observation, lily flowers is concluded that they equip phototropic mechanism to sense direction of incident light and control differential elongation of pistil and stamen. Action spectrum of light for this tropism was found similar to those for the phototropism shown in coleoptiles of monocotyledonous plants. Image analysis of pistil and stamen indicates that elongation and bending does not proceed uniformly over those organs. In the case of pistil, elongation starts at its basal part and propagates towards its top after opening of perianth. Steep bending occurs at the basal zone of pistil as long as differential incidence of light is given at its part.

Allelopathy caused by volatile compounds was studied with velvet bean (Mucuna pruriens [correction of prueiens] L.). Preparatory experiment was conducted to identify the relationship between action of volatiles and gravity. The experimental protocol was defined and tested to study on volatile allelopathy of velvet bean. Root growth of lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.) seedlings was inhibited by volatile gas from velvet bean seedlings planted in Agripot. In this study, it was shown that ten-day velvet bean seedling could exhibit the volatile allelopathic ability. Growth chambers for volatile experiment were designed. Velvet bean seed can germinate in a 3-ml small vial.

Growth of a filamentous fungus endophyte, Neotyphodium, was examined during the seed germination process of its host plant, tall fescue, Festuca arundinacea, by the ELISA method. Distribution of endophyte differed from that of substances induced by endophyte.

Growth of a filamentous fungus endophyte, Neotyphodium, and its host plant, tall fescue, Festuca arundinacea, was examined during the seed germination process under pseudo-microgravity [correction of micrgravity] generated by three dimensional (3D-) clinorotation. The shoot growth of tall fescue infected with the endophyte was remarkably suppressed on a 3D-clinostat compared with that of the ground control. Without being infected, shoot growth of tall fescue was not strongly affected by the 3D-clinorotation. Many aggregated hyphae were observed in the plant seed incubated for 1-day on the 3D-clinostat [correction of clinost] than in those kept on the ground. These results indicate that the clinorotation induces responses in the endophyte and its host plant different from those under normal gravity.

Allelopathy between Mucuna pruriens (velvet bean) and Lactuca sativa (lettuce) was studied under 3D-clinorotation. Growth of both roots and shoots of lettuce seedlings was suppressed by the presence of velvet bean. The degree of suppression was less on the clinostat compared to the normal static earth gravity. L-DOPA (L-3, 4-dihydroxyphenylalanine) is known to be a major substance in allelopathy of velvet bean. Amount of L-DOPA diffused out from a sintered filter paper into agar medium was compared between clinorotation and control group, and found no significant difference. It was concluded that some factors related to release, transport, and sensing phenomena of allelopathic substances may be responsible to the new findings in this study.

Living organisms interact each others and form ecological system on the earth. Such interactions between organisms and species have been long known, and studied at a global scale. Allelopathy is a phenomenon observed in many plants that emit specific chemicals acting on other organisms, including animals and microorganisms, in either inhibitory or excitatory ways. We propose to study whether phenomena of allelopathy are modified under altered gravity or not. If biosynthesis, emission and sensing mechanism of allelopathic substances would be affected by gravity, many organisms and ecological system might show different behaviors based on the inter-organisms and species interactions under microgravity. In the macroscopic scale, transport of the substances between organisms is largely affected by convection induced by gravity. Furthermore, the fate of allelopathic substances in confined environment differs from that seen on the earth, because of lacking sink compartment for removal and producing exotic bio-active substances by man-made system. We design basic ground experiment to evaluate gravitational effects on allelopathy applying pseudo-microgravity. Our study contributes to the synthesis of ecological system and its control on spacecrafts and extraterrestrial bodies. It also makes possible to sustain qualitative human life even on the ground under confined artificial environment that dominates in many scenes.