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      Star Ark 

      Space ecology

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      Springer International Publishing

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          Survival of rock-colonizing organisms after 1.5 years in outer space.

          Cryptoendolithic microbial communities and epilithic lichens have been considered as appropriate candidates for the scenario of lithopanspermia, which proposes a natural interplanetary exchange of organisms by means of rocks that have been impact ejected from their planet of origin. So far, the hardiness of these terrestrial organisms in the severe and hostile conditions of space has not been tested over extended periods of time. A first long-term (1.5 years) exposure experiment in space was performed with a variety of rock-colonizing eukaryotic organisms at the International Space Station on board the European EXPOSE-E facility. Organisms were selected that are especially adapted to cope with the environmental extremes of their natural habitats. It was found that some-but not all-of those most robust microbial communities from extremely hostile regions on Earth are also partially resistant to the even more hostile environment of outer space, including high vacuum, temperature fluctuation, the full spectrum of extraterrestrial solar electromagnetic radiation, and cosmic ionizing radiation. Although the reported experimental period of 1.5 years in space is not comparable with the time spans of thousands or millions of years believed to be required for lithopanspermia, our data provide first evidence of the differential hardiness of cryptoendolithic communities in space.
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            Microbial diversity of cellulose hydrolysis.

            Ira Wilson (2011)
            Enzymatic hydrolysis of cellulose by microorganisms is a key step in the global carbon cycle. Despite its abundance only a small percentage of microorganisms can degrade cellulose, probably because it is present in recalcitrant cell walls. There are at least five distinct mechanisms used by different microorganisms to degrade cellulose all of which involve cellulases. Cellulolytic organisms and cellulases are extremely diverse possibly because their natural substrates, plant cell walls, are very diverse. At this time the microbial ecology of cellulose degradation in any environment is still not clearly understood even though there is a great deal of information available about the bovine rumen. Two major problems that limit our understanding of this area are the vast diversity of organisms present in most cellulose degrading environments and the inability to culture most of them. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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              Spaceflight Promotes Biofilm Formation by Pseudomonas aeruginosa

              Understanding the effects of spaceflight on microbial communities is crucial for the success of long-term, manned space missions. Surface-associated bacterial communities, known as biofilms, were abundant on the Mir space station and continue to be a challenge on the International Space Station. The health and safety hazards linked to the development of biofilms are of particular concern due to the suppression of immune function observed during spaceflight. While planktonic cultures of microbes have indicated that spaceflight can lead to increases in growth and virulence, the effects of spaceflight on biofilm development and physiology remain unclear. To address this issue, Pseudomonas aeruginosa was cultured during two Space Shuttle Atlantis missions: STS-132 and STS-135, and the biofilms formed during spaceflight were characterized. Spaceflight was observed to increase the number of viable cells, biofilm biomass, and thickness relative to normal gravity controls. Moreover, the biofilms formed during spaceflight exhibited a column-and-canopy structure that has not been observed on Earth. The increase in the amount of biofilms and the formation of the novel architecture during spaceflight were observed to be independent of carbon source and phosphate concentrations in the media. However, flagella-driven motility was shown to be essential for the formation of this biofilm architecture during spaceflight. These findings represent the first evidence that spaceflight affects community-level behaviors of bacteria and highlight the importance of understanding how both harmful and beneficial human-microbe interactions may be altered during spaceflight.
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                Book Chapter
                2017
                November 15 2016
                : 255-286
                10.1007/978-3-319-31042-8_11
                b8b762c2-dc4f-451e-a20b-455c96c21567
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