Bacteria in Space

Today my teacher mentioned briefly how bacteria behaves in space... So I elaborated on the topic and took research into my own hands. Here's what I found.

Cheryl Nickerson

In 2006, Cheryl Nickerson, a microbiologist at Arizona State University, sent a culture of salmonella bacteria into space on the space shuttle Atlantis. Eleven days later, the bacteria returned safely to earth. Within three hours of receiving the space-grown bacteria, Nickerson infected hundreds of mice with the bacteria, and another hundred with earth-grown bacteria. The results were interesting... The space-grown infected mice were getting sick after a few days of infection, which is weird because normally it takes about 5-7 days to get infected. The space-grown bacteria also killed the mice much faster, with worse symptoms than the earth grown.

Cynthia Collins

On 2010, may 16th a research team lead by Cynthia Collins, set an experiment into orbit about the space shuttle at Lantis Missions (NASA funded). During this mission, samples of Pseudomonas Aeruginosa (bacteria that can cause disease in plants and animals, as well as humans) were cultured for three days in artificial urine. These biofilms formed a "column and canopy" structure that has never been observed on earth before. The biofilms grown during flight had a greater number of cells, more biomass and were thicker than the control (earth) biofilms.

Observing these effects of spaceflight on the biofilms could one day launch new approaches to curb the spread of infections... from observing how gravity, fluids and other factors affect biofilm formation on earth. New methods could arise to prevent and treat human disease.

International Space Station

In March 2021, four strains of bacteria were discovered on the space station... three of which were previously unknown to scientists. The known species is known as Methylorubrum Rhodesianum and the unknown were named Methylobacterium Ajmalii.

These bacteria are 100% safe for humans (no need to worry!) and could actually be beneficial for growing plants in the harsh conditions of space.

These bacteria derived from experiments that astronauts conducted when growing food on the ISS... These four strains are currently under genetic analysis to find genes to promote plant growth.

These novel microbes definitely have the potential to help promote plant growth under stressful conditions in future missions to space.