Microbial issues concerning microbiological experiments and human life support on space

摘要

Extreme environmental conditions are well known on Earth, and many examples can be mentioned to underline the strong selection of chemical and physical parameters on living organisms. Temperature, salinity, acidity/alkalinity, and pressure can significantly affect the survival of all organisms, and often only microorganisms can withstand the most stringent conditions. Some of them, known as extremophiles, grow optimally in habitats where no eucaryote can survive, such as hot springs, acidic pools, solar salterns, deep-sea. Space can also be described as an extreme environment, due to the presence of microgravity, vacuum, UV rays, space and cosmic radiations. Previous work was mainly focused to study the response of representative non pathogenic microorganisms to the environment inside the space vehicle at different mission stages (10, 56, and 226 days) within the frame of the Italian ENEIDE mission. Microorganisms were chosen according to their phylogenetic position and cell structures; they were representatives of the three taxonomic domains and belonged to different ecosystems.