A microbial survey of the International Space Station (ISS)

Jenna M Lang; David A Coil; Russell Y Neches; Wendy E Brown; Darlene Cavalier; Mark Severance; Jarrad T Hampton-Marcell; Jack A Gilbert; Jonathan A Eisen

doi:10.7717/peerj.4029

A microbial survey of the International Space Station (ISS)

PeerJ. 2017 Dec 5:5:e4029. doi: 10.7717/peerj.4029. eCollection 2017.

Authors

Jenna M Lang¹, David A Coil¹, Russell Y Neches¹, Wendy E Brown^{2

3}, Darlene Cavalier^{2

4

5}, Mark Severance^{2

5}, Jarrad T Hampton-Marcell^{6

7}, Jack A Gilbert^{8

9}, Jonathan A Eisen^{1

10

11}

Affiliations

¹ Genome Center, University of California, Davis, CA, United States of America.
² Science Cheerleader, United States of America.
³ Biomedical Engineering, University of California, Davis, CA, United States of America.
⁴ The Consortium for Science, Policy & Outcomes, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, United States of America.
⁵ Scistarter.org, United States of America.
⁶ Biosciences Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Lemont, IL, United States of America.
⁷ Department of Biological Sciences, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, United States of America.
⁸ Argonne National Laboratory, University of Chicago, Lemont, IL, United States of America.
⁹ Institute for Genomics and Systems Biology, Argonne National Laboratory, Lemont, IL, United States of America.
¹⁰ Evolution and Ecology, University of CaliforniaDavis, CA, United States of America.
¹¹ Medical Microbiology and Immunology, University of California, Davis, CA, United States of America.

Abstract

Background: Modern advances in sequencing technology have enabled the census of microbial members of many natural ecosystems. Recently, attention is increasingly being paid to the microbial residents of human-made, built ecosystems, both private (homes) and public (subways, office buildings, and hospitals). Here, we report results of the characterization of the microbial ecology of a singular built environment, the International Space Station (ISS). This ISS sampling involved the collection and microbial analysis (via 16S rDNA PCR) of 15 surfaces sampled by swabs onboard the ISS. This sampling was a component of Project MERCCURI (Microbial Ecology Research Combining Citizen and University Researchers on ISS). Learning more about the microbial inhabitants of the "buildings" in which we travel through space will take on increasing importance, as plans for human exploration continue, with the possibility of colonization of other planets and moons.

Results: Sterile swabs were used to sample 15 surfaces onboard the ISS. The sites sampled were designed to be analogous to samples collected for (1) the Wildlife of Our Homes project and (2) a study of cell phones and shoes that were concurrently being collected for another component of Project MERCCURI. Sequencing of the 16S rDNA genes amplified from DNA extracted from each swab was used to produce a census of the microbes present on each surface sampled. We compared the microbes found on the ISS swabs to those from both homes on Earth and data from the Human Microbiome Project.

Conclusions: While significantly different from homes on Earth and the Human Microbiome Project samples analyzed here, the microbial community composition on the ISS was more similar to home surfaces than to the human microbiome samples. The ISS surfaces are species-rich with 1,036-4,294 operational taxonomic units (OTUs per sample). There was no discernible biogeography of microbes on the 15 ISS surfaces, although this may be a reflection of the small sample size we were able to obtain.

Keywords: 16S; International space station; Microbial ecology; Microbiology of the built environment; Microbiome.

Associated data

figshare/10.6084/m9.figshare.4244123.v3

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the Space Florida ISS Research Competition (http://www.spaceflorida.gov/iss-research-competition), http://SciStarter.com, and a grant to Jonathan A. Eisen from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation as part of the “Microbiology of the Built Environment” program. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.