A bacterium on the ISS can open the door to colonization of Space
A recent discovery of three new strains of bacteria by researchers aboard the International Space Station (ISS) could fuel the future development of crops growing in space or on other planets, according to a study published Monday.
"Four strains belonging to the Methylobacteriaceae family have been isolated from different locations on the International Space Station (ISS) through two consecutive flights," read the results, published in the journal Frontiers in Microbiology .
Entitled “Methylobacterium ajmalii sp. Nov., Isolated from the International Space Station, ”researchers in the United States and India working with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory have discovered four strains of bacteria living in various locations on the ISS, three of which were unknown.
“While one strain has been identified as Methylorubrum rhodesianum, the other 3 were previously unknown and belong to a new new species. The rod-shaped motile bacteria have received the designations IF7SW-B2T, IIF1SW-B5 and IIF4SW-B5 with genetic analysis showing that they are closely related to Methylobacterium indicaum ", explained in a press release Kasthuri Venkateswaran and Nitin Kumar Singh, two of the authors of the article from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
"To grow plants in extreme locations where resources are minimal, isolating new microbes that help promote plant growth under extreme conditions is essential," the two said.
The discovery of new bacteria to support crop growth in space could lead to breakthroughs in sustainable space agriculture. Bacteria are essential to the life cycle of plants and the transformation of the soil into fertile humus. The fact that species of bacteria develop in space is a positive indicator of the possibility of agricultural development in space.
President Biden will continue the Artemis program to land humans on the moon by the end of his first term. The United States has various plans for the moon, such as mining the lunar surface and creating a base station, which involves astronauts and sustainable living quarters. But there can be no support for life without agricultural activity.
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The article A bacterium on the ISS can open the starad to the colonization of Space comes from ScenariEconomici.it .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/un-batterio-sulla-iss-puo-aprire-la-starad-alla-colonizzazione-dello-spazio/ on Sun, 21 Mar 2021 07:00:21 +0000.