Draft Genome Sequences of Biosafety Level 2 Opportunistic Pathogens Isolated from the Environmental Surfaces of the International Space Station

Abstract

The draft genome sequences of 20 biosafety level 2 (BSL-2) opportunistic pathogens isolated from the environmental surfaces of the International Space Station (ISS) were presented. These genomic sequences will help in understanding the influence of microgravity on the pathogenicity and virulence of these strains when compared with Earth strains.

Pangenomic Approach To Understanding Microbial Adaptations within a Model Built Environment, the International Space Station, Relative to Human Hosts and Soil

“…Culture-based resistance assays had also previously indicated that the majority of both sets of strains were resistant to penicillin and some S. aureus strains were resistant to erythromycin and rifampin as well (29, 30). In the present work, we found that only penicillin resistance was significantly enriched in the ISS-associated S.…”

“…(C) Phylogenetic tree constructed from core gene codon alignment with midpoint rooting. ISS-, human-, and BE-E-sourced strains from the work of Checinska Sielaff et al (29) and the Wallace and Voorhies data set (Table S1) are shaded in blue, yellow, and gray, respectively.…”

“…cereus and S. aureus are among the most prevalent species in the culture collection with sequenced genomes (28–30). These economically and epidemiologically important taxa represent model organisms with drastically different lifestyles, survival strategies, and disease implications.…”

“…Thus, strains of the latter that have been isolated from the ISS were probably deposited from whomever was aboard during the prior few weeks, and population persistence may depend on reseeding via transfers between humans and the BE. In addition to their presence in the ISS microbiome, strains of both taxa have been frequently isolated and sequenced from various environments (e.g., BEs and soil) and human clinical samples on Earth (29–31, 37–54). In the present work, whole-genome sequencing (WGS) data from these diverse studies were leveraged to characterize the pangenomes of B.…”

Advances in space microbiology

“…Omics can also help obtain information about the persistence of viruses on the ISS so that effective techniques to detect those viruses and countermeasures for the safety of crew health can be developed.

Figure 3 TImeline of key space microbiology experiments An overview of the space microbiology experiments leading to Microbial Tracking (MT) experiments (MT-1 and MT-2) ( Be et al., 2017 ; Checinska Sielaff et al., 2017 ; Checinska Sielaff et al., 2016 ; Crabbe et al., 2013 ; Kim et al., 2013 ; Klaus and Howard, 2006 ; Knox et al., 2016 ; Singh et al., 2018b ; Taylor et al., 2014 ; Urbaniak et al., 2018 , 2020a ; Venkateswaran et al., 2017 ; Wilson et al., 2007 ; Yang et al., 2013b ). The figure has been generated using BioRender ( https://biorender.com/ ).

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