{"id":9324,"date":"2023-10-18T18:04:16","date_gmt":"2023-10-18T22:04:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zobi.alcowep.com\/bourtagshdrevxnls658739\/station-science-101-microbiology\/"},"modified":"2023-10-18T18:04:16","modified_gmt":"2023-10-18T22:04:16","slug":"station-science-101-microbiology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zobi.alcowep.com\/bourtagshdrevxnls658739\/station-science-101-microbiology\/","title":{"rendered":"Station Science 101: Microbiology"},"content":{"rendered":"

Station Science 101: Microbiology<\/h2>\n

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NASA astronaut Joe Acaba with one of the Microbial Air Samplers, devices that monitor microbes in the air of the space station.<\/div>\n
NASA<\/em><\/strong><\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Wherever there are humans, there are microbes, too. Bacteria and fungi live all around us, in our homes, offices, industrial areas, the outdoors \u2013 even in space. People literally could not live without these tiny organisms, many of which are beneficial.<\/p>\n

The trick is limiting potentially harmful ones, particularly in a contained environment such as a spacecraft. So from the launch of the very first module of the\u00a0International Space Station, NASA has monitored its microbial community.<\/p>\n

Because the station is an enclosed system, the only way that microbes get there is hitching a ride on the contents of resupply spacecraft from Earth and on arriving astronauts. The NASA Johnson Space Center\u00a0Microbiology Laboratory<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0puts a lot of effort into knowing which microbes ride along.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t sterilize everything we send into space, and don\u2019t want to, but we do a lot to limit potential pathogens from making their way to the station,\u201d says NASA microbiologist Sarah Wallace, Ph.D. \u201cAt launch, the cargo, food, vehicles, and crew members each have their own microbiome, or suite of microbes. When everything gets to the station, these microbiomes become part of the space station microbiome.\u201d<\/p>\n

The lab uses the traditional method of culturing a sample in a growth medium, similar to Petri dishes from high school science class, to sample a portion of everything during packing for launch and the launch vehicles themselves. This sampling confirms that contamination control plans are working properly \u2013 essentially making sure the numbers of microbes remain low and that those present are the ones normally expected.<\/p>\n

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Astronauts sample a surface on the International Space Station for this microbial culture slide.<\/div>\n
NASA<\/em><\/strong><\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Then the lab continues monitoring after the vehicle, cargo, and crew arrive at the station. Crew members sample and culture microbes from the air, surfaces, and water on the station.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s kind of a spot check to see how well housekeeping procedures are being implemented and how well the water system and the air filters are working,\u201d Wallace says.<\/p>\n

She calls the station\u2019s water processing system \u201ca phenomenal piece of engineering\u201d that produces water much cleaner than most of us drink on Earth. In addition, the station itself is remarkably clean thanks to HEPA filters for the air and housekeeping practices for surfaces. \u201cWhat microbes we see are really what we\u2019d see if we looked at your home. In fact, we\u2019ve done several studies comparing the station to a typical home and it is similar but usually cleaner,\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n

This monitoring over the lifetime of the orbiting lab has created a unique, long-term database that helps microbiologists know what to expect.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur requirements are two-fold, how much is there and what is there,\u201d Wallace says. For years, the scientists didn\u2019t know the \u2018what\u2019 until samples came back to ground. Now the equipment exists to perform direct swab-to-sequencer identification, eliminating the need to culture samples and return them to Earth. That equipment includes the miniPCR<\/strong><\/a>, a device that amplifies or makes many copies of a DNA strand using a process called polymerase chain reaction (PCR), and the MinION, a portable DNA sequencer. The Genes in Space 3 collaboration between Boeing and NASA paired these two platforms together, which led to the first identification of unknown bacteria off Earth.<\/p>\n

NASA\u2019s lab then conducted tests and confirmed that microbe identifications from the inflight process matched those determined on the ground down to the species level1<\/sup>.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the first time ever, we identified unknown microbes collected and cultured off Earth,\u201d says Wallace. \u201cWe followed that up with the swab-to-sequencer, which lets us move away from culturing completely. We can swab a surface and sequence whatever is there.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Plates for culturing samples collected by the Microbial Air Samplers on the space station.<\/div>\n
NASA<\/em><\/strong><\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Subsequent work advanced the use of sequencing in space and later tests found that the culture-independent method showed the same microbial distributions as the standard culture-dependent method2<\/sup>. The swab-and-sequence method has been streamlined so that crew members can easily complete it in an extreme environment.<\/p>\n

That is a critical capability for future missions to the Moon and Mars, both to continue to protect crew health and safety and to make sure that we do not contaminate other worlds. If explorers detect microbial life on another planet, they need to know whether it was already there or came from Earth.<\/p>\n

Researchers also use the space station to conduct long-term microbial studies. The\u00a0Microbial Tracking<\/strong>\u00a0series studied what kinds of microbes are on the space station, both in the environment and in the astronauts\u2019 bodies.<\/p>\n

In addition to surveying the types of microbes present on the station, the lab studies whether those microbes could be harmful, as microgravity and radiation in space can render innocuous microorganisms potentially harmful and microbial behavior can change as the organisms adapt to the spaceflight environment.<\/p>\n

So far, microbial issues on Earth far exceed any seen in space, Wallace says. \u201cIn addition to all the preflight monitoring, crew members are quarantined prior to launch. These steps were started back during Apollo missions and still are effective toward keeping our crews healthy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Because where people go, scientists want to know what microbes follow.<\/p>\n

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Citations<\/em><\/p>\n

1 <\/sup>Burton AS, Stahl-Rommel SE, John KK, Jain M, Juul S, Turner DJ, Harrington ED, Stoddart D, Paten B, Akeson M, Castro-Wallace SL. Off Earth Identification of Bacterial Populations Using 16S rDNA Nanopore Sequencing. Genes. 2020 January 9; 76(11): 76 (https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2073-4425\/11\/1\/76<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n

2<\/sup> Stahl-Rommel S, Jain M, Nguyen HN, Arnold RR, Aunon-Chancellor SM, Sharp GM, Castro CL, John KK, Juul S, Turner DJ, et al. Real-Time Culture-Independent Microbial Profiling Onboard the International Space Station Using Nanopore Sequencing. Genes. 2021; 12(1):106. (https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2073-4425\/12\/1\/106<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n

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Wherever there are humans, there are microbes, too. Bacteria and fungi live all around us, in our homes, offices, industrial areas, the outdoors \u2013 even in space. People literally could not live without these tiny organisms, many of which are beneficial. The trick is limiting potentially harmful ones, particularly in a contained environment such as [\u2026] Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

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