A group of scientists from around the world, including the University of Gottingen, looked into how likely it would be for kombucha cultures to live in conditions like those on Mars.

Kombucha is a drink made by fermenting sugared tea with kombucha cultures, a symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast. It’s also known as tea fungus or mushroom tea.

Despite the fact that the kombucha cultures’ microbial ecology was decimated by the simulated Martian environment, a cellulose-producing bacterial species survived.

The findings were reported in the journal Frontiers in Microbiology.

With the help of the European Space Agency, scientists from the “Biology and Mars Experiment” (BIOMEX) project launched kombucha cultures to the International Space Station (ISS) in 2014.

The goal was to learn more about cellulose’s robustness as a biomarker, kombucha’s genetic architecture, and its ability to survive in alien environments.

The samples were reactivated on Earth and cultured for another two and a half years after spending a year and a half in simulated Martian conditions outside the ISS.

Professor Bertram Brenig, head of the University of Göttingen’s Institute of Veterinary Medicine, led a team of researchers from the University of Minas Gerais in Brazil in sequencing and bioinformatic analyses of the metagenomes of reactivated cultures and individual kombucha cultures.

“Based on our metagenomic analysis, we found that the simulated Martian environment drastically disrupted the microbial ecology of kombucha cultures. However, we were surprised to discover that the cellulose-producing bacteria of the genus Komagataeibacter survived.”

The findings show that the bacteria’s ability to survive in alien environments is due to the cellulose they make. This is also the first proof that bacterial cellulose can be used as a biomarker for extraterrestrial life, and that cellulose-based membranes or films can be used to safeguard life and produce consumer goods in interplanetary communities.

Another fascinating feature of this research could be the creation of novel medication delivery methods, such as for the development of space medicine.

Investigations into changes in antibiotic resistance were also a focus: the research team was able to show that the total number of antibiotic and metal resistance genes – indicating that these microorganisms could survive in the presence of antibiotics or metals in the environment – were enriched in the exposed cultures.

“This result shows that the difficulties associated with antibiotic resistance in medicine in space should be given special attention in the future,” the researchers indicated.

Image Credit: European Space Agency (ESA)

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