Hyperspectral imaging reveals early drought stress and associated molecular responses in lettuce for space agriculture
Lalit M Kandpal, Ellen Garcia, Blake Costine, Chansong Hwang, Anirudha Dixit, LaShelle Spencer, Tie Liu, Aubrie O'Rourke, Insuck Baek, Moon Kim · 2026
Read Hyperspectral imaging reveals early drought stress and associated molecular responses in lettuce for space agriculture by Lalit M Kandpal, Ellen Garcia, Blake Costine, Chansong Hwang, Anirudha Dixit, LaShelle Spencer, Tie Liu, Aubrie O'Rourke, Insuck Baek, Moon Kim (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/pmc-13308413.txt.
Description
Lalit Kandpal and co-authors catch drought stress in lettuce days before the eye can see it, with an eye toward growing food in space. Published in 2026, the study images plants daily over fifteen days of controlled water shortage, using both reflectance and fluorescence hyperspectral imaging. Models combining the two beat either alone, reaching up to 97 percent accuracy by day five.
Key wavelengths clustered in bands tied to chlorophyll and photosystem activity. Gene and metabolite profiles, integrated with the imaging signal, revealed one dominant drought axis of coordinated molecular response starting early. The authors frame the pairing of imaging with molecular readouts as a route to autonomous crop care on long missions.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Lalit M Kandpal, Ellen Garcia, Blake Costine, Chansong Hwang, Anirudha Dixit, LaShelle Spencer, Tie Liu, Aubrie O'Rourke, Insuck Baek, Moon Kim |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 60 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |