Kombucha Multimicrobial Community under Simulated Spaceflight and Martian Conditions

Abstract

Kombucha microbial community (KMC) produces a cellulose-based biopolymer of industrial importance and a probiotic beverage. KMC-derived cellulose-based pellicle film is known as a highly adaptive microbial macrocolony-a stratified community of prokaryotes and eukaryotes. In the framework of the multipurpose international astrobiological project "BIOlogy and Mars Experiment (BIOMEX)," which aims to study the vitality of prokaryotic and eukaryotic organisms and the stability of selected biomarkers in low Earth orbit and in a Mars-like environment, a cellulose polymer structural integrity will be assessed as a biomarker and biotechnological nanomaterial. In a preflight assessment program for BIOMEX, the mineralized bacterial cellulose did not exhibit significant changes in the structure under all types of tests. KMC members that inhabit the cellulose-based pellicle exhibited a high survival rate; however, the survival capacity depended on a variety of stressors such as the vacuum of space, a Mars-like atmosphere, UVC radiation, and temperature fluctuations. The critical limiting factor for microbial survival was high-dose UV irradiation. In the tests that simulated a 1-year mission of exposure outside the International Space Station, the core populations of bacteria and yeasts survived and provided protection against UV; however, the microbial density of the populations overall was reduced, which was revealed by implementation of culture-dependent and culture-independent methods. Reduction of microbial richness was also associated with a lower accumulation of chemical elements in the cellulose-based pellicle film, produced by microbiota that survived in the post-test experiments, as compared to untreated cultures that populated the film. Key Words: BIOlogy and Mars Experiment (BIOMEX)-Kombucha multimicrobial community-Biosignature-Biofilm-Bacterial cellulose. Astrobiology 17, 459-469.

Multimicrobial Kombucha Culture Tolerates Mars-like Conditions Simulated on Low Earth Orbit

“…Previous work has shown that a KMC normally forms a biofilm within 2 days postinoculation; however, it can take up to 2 months to form biofilm in stress-exposed KMC samples (Podolich et al, 2017a(Podolich et al, , 2017b. In this study, during the recovery process, the KMC samples that had returned from LEO and also the laboratory and transportation control samples, as well as ground-based experiment ones, had completely blackened and become nontransparent after 7 days of culturing.…”

“…The cultures were grown until pellicles were formed, which were *0.7 mm in diameter. The pellicles were mixed with an anorthosite egg white mixture to ensure that the culture was integrated with the mineral samples and desiccated, as described (Podolich et al, 2017a). The samples were shipped from Kyiv to the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in Cologne.…”

“…Summarizing, we may assume that the survival of the KMCs after exposure to the harsh Mars-like conditions in LEO occurred due to a complex of resistance factors, including (1) evolutionary acquired adaptive/protective mechanisms, such as a cellulose-based film formation and a specific cell membrane lipidome; (2) metabolic partnering; (3) desiccation of the KMC film during sample preparation, leading to the priming of community members for better survival in the stressful environment. In ground-simulated astrobiological experiments, biofilm formation proved to be advantageous for surviving simulated Mars-like conditions for both monoculture (Frösler et al, 2017) and microbial assemblages (Baqué et al, 2013;Podolich et al, 2017a).…”

“…Previous work has shown that sessile kombucha community members are protected by a cellulosebased film against harsh environmental factors (Williams and Cannon, 1989;Kato et al, 2007). Preliminary groundbased experiments demonstrated that a KMC tolerated a low dosage of ultraviolet (UV)-C radiation, high vacuum, temperature cycling (between -10°C and +45°C), a Mars-like atmosphere and pressure (Podolich et al, 2017a). In this article, we examined the effect of simulated Mars-like conditions, in LEO, on desiccated and partly mineralized (through living) cellulose-based KMC biofilms, which contained both multicomponent prokaryotic and eukaryotic assemblages.…”

Hydrogel bacterial cellulose: a path to improved materials for new eco-friendly textiles

“…Under ideal conditions these materials could be biodegradable and the thus obtained biomass could be returned to the circulation by being re-used in bioreactors. To make it possible, it seems optimal to use natural fabrics which are almost always biodegradable (Béguin and Aubert 1994;Li et al 2010;Podolich et al 2017Podolich et al , 2019.…”