The DNA of Bacteria of the World Ocean and the Earth in Cosmic Dust at the International Space Station

Abstract

Cosmic dust samples from the surface of the illuminator of the International Space Station (ISS) were collected by a crew member during his spacewalk. The sampler with tampon in a vacuum container was delivered to the Earth. Washouts from the tampon's material and the tampon itself were analyzed for the presence of bacterial DNA by the method of nested PCR with primers specific to DNA of the genus Mycobacteria, DNA of the strains of capsular bacteria Bacillus, and DNA encoding 16S ribosomal RNA. The results of amplification followed by sequencing and phylogenetic analysis indicated the presence of the bacteria of the genus Mycobacteria and the extreme bacterium of the genus Delftia in the samples of cosmic dust. It was shown that the DNA sequence of one of the bacteria of the genus Mycobacteria was genetically similar to that previously observed in superficial micro layer at the Barents and Kara seas' coastal zones. The presence of the wild land and marine bacteria DNA on the ISS suggests their possible transfer from the stratosphere into the ionosphere with the ascending branch of the global electric circuit. Alternatively, the wild land and marine bacteria as well as the ISS bacteria may all have an ultimate space origin.

On the Difficulty of the Transport of Electrically Charged Submicron Dust from the Earth’s Surface to the High Ionosphere

“…We conclude by remarking that the discovery of Earth-like microorganisms on the exterior of the International Space Station by Grebennikova et al [7], if confirmed, gives strong credence to their introduction to the geospace environment from outside the Earth rather than from the Earth's surface. Only an infinitesimal part of the 100 of tonnes of meteoritic and cometary dust entering the Earth on a daily basis needs to be in the form of bacteria to explain their result.…”

“…Except during times of exceptionally energetic events such as powerful volcanic eruptions or (much more rarely) asteroid or comet impacts, dust from the surface cannot be naturally lofted into the stratosphere and above. The recent report of bacteria found at the orbit of the International Space Station (ISS) at 400km altitude is a counter-example that needs to be understood [7]. In this note we discuss the possibility of electric fields contributing to the transport of charged bacteria and dust from lower levels in the atmosphere into the ionosphere; we show that they are too small to have any significant effect.…”

“…Bacteria have been isolated from the stratosphere over several years and the presumption has been that they are of extra-terrestrial origin (Imshenetsky et al, 1978;Wainwright et al, 2003;Grebennikova et al, 2018) [5,6,7]. The height distribution of stratospheric bacteria inferred from balloon sampling carried out in 2001 was interpreted as being consistent with in-falling particles rather than particles lofted from the ground (Narlikar et al, 2003) [8].…”

Pulmonary non-tuberculous mycobacterial infections: current state and future management

“…Dust and sand from deserts, due to storms, can travel long distances even between continents and represent a vehicle for the dispersion of microorganisms, including NTM [247][248][249]. Also, mycobacterial DNA have been found in cosmic dust [250].…”

The Scientist: Creator and Destroyer—“Scientists’ Warning to Humanity” Is a Wake-Up Call for Researchers

“…They are blank vacuoles, air-filled cavities within the sphere of knowledges-the unexplored territories; the issues and scientific fields which we have avoided or overlooked or simply had to pass due to a lack of either understanding; e.g., [12], or which we have avoided due to lack of methods for investigation, such as the enigmatic plasma vortices described by Levengood and Talbot in 1999 [13]. Alternatively, they arise from scientific questions preliminarily approached in theory, and only much later investigated with modern methods; e.g., the theory of panspermia originally presented in 1908 by Arrhenius [14] and revived a century later [15,16].…”