A bacterium never seen before it was discovered in orbit on the Chinese Space Station Tiangong: called Nialia tianggensiswould be ‘cousin’ of a soil microorganism called Nialia Circulanswhich until some time was considered a pathogenic form of Bacillus. At the moment it is not yet clear whether the extraterrestrial bacterium can represent a threat to the health of astronauts, but certainly his own ability to adaptdescribed in a study on International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology, may be of interest for future space missions Of long life.
The authors of the article are convinced, the researchers of the Shenzhou Space Biotechnology Group and the Institute of Spacecraft System Engineering in Beijing, who studied the bacterium found in the buffers taken aboard the Chinese space station in May 2023 by the crew of the Shenzhou-15as part of one of the two investigations conducted by the China Space Station Habitation Area Microbiome Program.
The researchers they still don’t know If N. Tianggensis you are evolved on the tiangong or if it is arrived on board in the form of spores already presenting some of its distinctive characteristics. The study shows that the microorganism has one unique capacity to break down the gelatin as a source of nitrogen And carbonan ability that proves useful to build one protective layer of biofilm in which to wrap up When environmental conditions become difficult. On the other hand, it seems to have lost the ability to exploit other energy sources used by its terrestrial relatives.
This demonstrates the ease With which certain bacteria can adapt to orbiting habitats and beyond. A few days ago the news of the discovery of 26 New bacterial species in white rooms used in 2007 From the US space agency to prepare the Lander Phoenix Mars at launch. The results of the study, published by the NASA JPL in the journal Microbiome, show that the ability of these bacteria to adapt to environments considered sterile is due to some genes related to DNA repair and resistance to substances present at potentially toxic levels for other microorganisms.
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