The International Space Station lacks microbial diversity. Is it too clean?

With aerial filters and weekly wipe-downs and vacuuming, NASA goes to awesome lengths to support nan International Space Station cleanable truthful that astronauts enactment healthy. But astronauts still often acquisition wellness problems for illustration immune dysfunction, tegument rashes and different inflammatory conditions. One logic whitethorn beryllium because nan ISS mightiness beryllium too clean, a caller study suggests.

Microbes, mini surviving organisms for illustration germs and viruses, play an important domiciled successful quality health. But samples of surfaces successful nan ISS bespeak a striking deficiency of microbial diversity, Rodolfo Salido Benítez, a bioengineer astatine University of California, San Diego, and colleagues study February 27 successful Cell. 

Astronauts swabbed surfaces successful nan kitchen, bathroom, eating abstraction and different areas connected nan ISS. They past sent nan 803 samples to Benitez and colleagues for analysis. 

The ISS has little microbial diverseness than astir buildings connected Earth. And astir each of those microbes travel from humans and building materials, while little than 0.3 percent are from earthy biology sources for illustration ungraded and water. Like astir indoor environments connected Earth, nan immense mostly of microbes originate from quality skin.

Inside and extracurricular nan body, microbes compete for resources and space, truthful maintaining a divers group keeps immoderate 1 of them from taking complete and causing an wellness problems.  Low microbial diverseness successful hospitals, for example, leads to a higher consequence of infection. Even nan microbes successful your location tin impact your health. One study recovered that Amish communities have a little consequence of asthma than different communities pinch akin lifestyles because their family particulate contains microbes from workplace animals.

A container afloat of custom-made sampling devices utilized to cod aboveground swabs passim nan International Space Station floats successful nan cupola, an watching area for activities extracurricular nan station. NASA

“If we’re outside, we’re mostly exposed to a batch much microbial diverseness from rubbing animals aliases soil,” says Sean Gibbons, a microbiome interrogator astatine nan Institute for Systems Biology successful Seattle. “When we’re inside, these walls, these surfaces are acting for illustration mirrors. They’re fundamentally reflecting backmost upon america our ain microbial diversity.”

Maintaining a patient diverseness of microbes successful confined spaces will beryllium a increasing interest arsenic astronauts spend much clip successful space and new missions begin. Scientists will request to trial caller ways of adding much “good germs” to nan mix, for illustration bringing animals aboard aliases stocking nan ISS pantry pinch fermented foods, says Pieter Dorrestein, a chemic biologist astatine UC San Diego.

“The reality is that we’re going to inhabit abstraction astatine immoderate point, truthful this activity will springiness america nan first penetration successful position of nan things that we request to adhd and remove,” Dorrestein says. “The astir important connection that we tin walk connected is really important is to not only look astatine what’s present, but besides what’s absent.”