Bacteria from a kombucha culture could potentially survive on Mars - by AndyTomaswick
Bacteria surviving on the Martian surface is both a blessing and a potential curse, as described in this UT video.
After the samples were sent back to Earth, they were allowed to grow for another two and a half years before being analyzed by the BIOMEX team. At the end, the team ran a series of bioinformatic analyses on the culture and found that, while most of the symbiotic culture had died, the Komagataeibacter had survived.
That was interesting to the team, who had initially been searching for one particular material that Komagataeibacter happens to produce – cellulose. Cellulose has been suggested as a potential biomarker on alien worlds. The finding that the bacteria that produced cellulose survived in such an environment lends credibility to that theory.
While this discovery is a preliminary step in understanding how bacteria would survive in off-world environments, it could lead to potential breakthroughs with a better understanding. Cellulose could also provide a way to protect biological consumer goods in space environments. In addition, the surface coating that cellulose provides could serve as a novel drug delivery system, especially for use in space.
However, exploring the benefits of cellulose alone wasn’t the only outcome of this research. The BIOMEX team analyzed the full “metagenome” of the culture – in effect, they looked at all the genetic material left after the sample’s sojourn in the Martian environment.
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