Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2021 Apr 3;24(5):102395.
doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2021.102395. eCollection 2021 May 21.

Advances in space microbiology

Swati Bijlani  1 , Elisa Stephens  1 , Nitin Kumar Singh  2 , Kasthuri Venkateswaran  2 , Clay C C Wang  1
Affiliations
Review

Advances in space microbiology

Swati Bijlani et al. iScience. .

Abstract

Microbial research in space is being conducted for almost 50 years now. The closed system of the International Space Station (ISS) has acted as a microbial observatory for the past 10 years, conducting research on adaptation and survivability of microorganisms exposed to space conditions. This adaptation can be either beneficial or detrimental to crew members and spacecraft. Therefore, it becomes crucial to identify the impact of two primary stress conditions, namely, radiation and microgravity, on microbial life aboard the ISS. Elucidating the mechanistic basis of microbial adaptation to space conditions aids in the development of countermeasures against their potentially detrimental effects and allows us to harness their biotechnologically important properties. Several microbial processes have been studied, either in spaceflight or using devices that can simulate space conditions. However, at present, research is limited to only a few microorganisms, and extensive research on biotechnologically important microorganisms is required to make long-term space missions self-sustainable.

Keywords: Microbiology; Space Sciences.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

All authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

None
Graphical abstract
Figure 1
Figure 1
Ground-based microgravity simulators (A and B) Different (A) ground-based simulators that are commonly used and (B) their mode of action to mimic space microgravity conditions. The figure has been generated using BioRender (https://biorender.com/). The source of images for 3D clinostat and rotating wall vessel is As One International, Inc. and Synthecon Inc., respectively. The image for the mode of action of 3D clinostat is adapted from elsewhere (Borst and van Loon, 2009).
Figure 2
Figure 2
A brief overview of the need to study microbes on the ISS The figure has been generated using BioRender (https://biorender.com/).
Figure 3
Figure 3
TImeline of key space microbiology experiments An overview of the space microbiology experiments leading to Microbial Tracking (MT) experiments (MT-1 and MT-2) (Be et al., 2017; Checinska Sielaff et al., 2017; Checinska Sielaff et al., 2016; Crabbe et al., 2013; Kim et al., 2013; Klaus and Howard, 2006; Knox et al., 2016; Singh et al., 2018b; Taylor et al., 2014; Urbaniak et al., 2018, 2020a; Venkateswaran et al., 2017; Wilson et al., 2007; Yang et al., 2013b). The figure has been generated using BioRender (https://biorender.com/).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Acevedo-Rocha C.G., Gronenberg L.S., Mack M., Commichau F.M., Genee H.J. Microbial cell factories for the sustainable manufacturing of B vitamins. Curr. Opin. Biotechnol. 2019;56:18–29. - PubMed
    1. Aerts D., Hauer E.E., Ohm R.A., Arentshorst M., Teertstra W.R., Phippen C., Ram A.F.J., Frisvad J.C., Wosten H.A.B. The FlbA-regulated predicted transcription factor Fum21 of Aspergillus niger is involved in fumonisin production. Antonie Van Leeuwenhoek. 2018;111:311–322. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Altenburg S.D., Nielsen-Preiss S.M., Hyman L.E. Increased filamentous growth of Candida albicans in simulated. Microgravity. Genomics Proteomics Bioinformatics. 2008;6:42–50. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Arentshorst M., Ram A.F.J., Meyer V. Using non-homologous end-joining-deficient strains for functional gene analyses in filamentous fungi. In: Bolton M., Thomma B., editors. Plant Fungal Pathogens. Humana Press; 2012. pp. 133–150. - PubMed
    1. Aunins T.R., Erickson K.E., Prasad N., Levy S.E., Jones A., Shrestha S., Mastracchio R., Stodieck L., Klaus D., Zea L. Spaceflight modifies Escherichia coli gene expression in response to antibiotic exposure and reveals role of oxidative stress response. Front. Microbiol. 2018;9:310. - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources