SPACE STATION TEEMING WITH BACTERIA AND FUNGI, NASA FINDS.

A team of NASA researchers, including and Indian-origin scientist has found the surface inside the International Space Station (ISS) is littered with microbes just like in a gym or office on Earth - threatening astronauts' health at the orbiting laboratory. The knowledge of the composition of the microbial and fungal communities on the ISS can be used to develop safety measures for NASA for long-term space travel, said the researchers in a paper that appeared in the Journal 'Microbiome'. The authors found that while fungal communities were stable, microbial communities were similar across locations but changed over time. The microbes on the ISS were mostly human-associated. They included organisms that are considered opportunistic pathogens on Earth such as 'Staphylococcus Aureus' and 'Pantoea' and 'Bacillus'.
There are currently six astronauts on board the International Space Station. Whether these opportunistic bacteria could cause disease in astronauts on the ISS is unknown. This would depend on a number of factors, including the health status of each individual.
[Courtesy: The Times of India dated 09th April, 2019 (Tuesday)].
-Challapalli Srinivas Chakravarthy-
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