Attention future interplanetary explorers: Be cautious, as bacteria carried to Mars on human bodies may not only endure the harsh conditions on the Red Planet but also potentially thrive. The implications of these findings are significant for astronaut health and efforts to prevent contamination of other worlds (SN: 1/10/18). They highlight the resilience of bacteria, which has allowed them to exist on Earth for billions of years, according to Samantha Waters, a microbiologist at Mercer University in Atlanta, Ga., who was not involved in the experiments.
Previous research on the survivability of microbes on Mars has primarily focused on extremophile organisms, which thrive in environments with high radiation, salt, temperature swings, or aridity (SN: 11/2/22). However, in 2020, a team of scientists discovered that several bacterial species living on or inside the human body were able to grow in conditions resembling the nutrient-poor environment found in meteorites.
This discovery led researchers to wonder how these bugs would fare in the harsh Martian environment. As a result, several members of the team, along with microbiologist Tommaso Zaccaria, placed colonies of Burkholderia cepacia, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Serratia marcescens in a box with simulated Martian conditions and regolith, similar to the soil found on the surface of Mars. These four microbes typically live harmlessly on or in humans but can become pathogenic when stressed.
2024-02-02 09:00:00
Originally from www.sciencenews.org
