Leite, Mara;
Dobrijevic, Dragana;
Macey, Michael C;
Maheshwarappa, Mamatha;
Ward, John;
Dartnell, Lewis;
(2025)
Analysis of Microbial Diversity and Evidence of Contamination at a Mars Analogue Habitat.
Environmental Microbiology Reports
, 17
(4)
, Article e70146. 10.1111/1758-2229.70146.
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Abstract
We assessed the potential for a crewed mission to microbially-contaminate the Martian surface by studying a terrestrial analogue facility, the Mars Desert Research Station. DNA sequencing of interior swab and exterior soil samples allowed characterisation of the microbiome present inside the habitation module and to seek evidence of escape into the desert surface outside the “airlock”. Microbial diversity of interior surfaces was dominated by Gram-negative bacterial genera Acinetobacter, Pseudomonas, Escherichia and Shigella, with Penicillium and Aureobasidium most abundant amongst the fungal sequences—many members of which are human commensals. The soil microbiome sample was mostly characterised by Bacteroidota, Actinobacteriota and Pseudomonadota bacteria, with a number of extremophiles identified. The most abundant fungal genera were Alternaria, Neocamarosporium and Preussia. No archaeal sequences were isolated in either interior samples or soil. Principal Component Analysis of amplicon sequence variants shared between the soil sample and at least one indoor swab showed no evidence for contamination of the soil from the Hab microbiome. However, three bacterial genera—Paracoccus, Cesiribacter and Psychrobacter—identified in both soil and internal swabs are not commonly associated with humans and so represent evidence of backwards contamination of environmental microbes brought into the Hab during MDRS operations.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Analysis of Microbial Diversity and Evidence of Contamination at a Mars Analogue Habitat |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1111/1758-2229.70146 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1111/1758-2229.70146 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. © 2025 The Author(s). Environmental Microbiology Reports published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. |
| Keywords: | Science & Technology, Life Sciences & Biomedicine, Environmental Sciences, Microbiology, Environmental Sciences & Ecology, contamination, desert environment, human-associated bacteria, Mars, Mars Desert research station, microbial diversity, COMMENSAL FUNGI, SP NOV., PLANETARY PROTECTION, BACTERIA, MYCOSPHAERELLA, ENVIRONMENTS, POPULATIONS, INSIGHTS, ARCHAEA, IMPACT |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science > Dept of Biochemical Engineering UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences > Dept of Space and Climate Physics |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10218665 |
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