Genomic insights into novel extremotolerant bacteria isolated from the NASA Phoenix mission spacecraft assembly cleanrooms

作     者：Schultz, Junia Jamil, Tahira Sengupta, Pratyay Sivabalan, Shobhan Karthick Muthamilselvi Rawat, Anamika Patel, Niketan Krishnamurthi, Srinivasan Alam, Intikhab Singh, Nitin K. Raman, Karthik Rosado, Alexandre Soares Venkateswaran, Kasthuri 

作者机构：King Abdullah Univ Sci & Technol Biol & Environm Sci & Engn Div Thuwal 23955 Makkah Saudi Arabia Indian Inst Technol Madras Bhupat & Jyoti Mehta Sch Biosci Dept Biotechnol Chennai 600036 Tamil Nadu India Indian Inst Technol Madras Ctr Integrat Biol & Syst Med IBSE Chennai 600036 Tamil Nadu India Indian Inst Technol Madras Robert Bosch Ctr Data Sci & Artificial Intelligenc Chennai 600036 Tamil Nadu India Inst Microbial Technol Microbial Type Culture Collect & Gene Bank MTCC Chandigarh 160036 India CALTECH NASA Jet Prop Lab Pasadena CA 91125 USA Indian Inst Technol Madras Wadhwani Sch Data Sci & AI Dept Data Sci & AI Chennai 600036 Tamil Nadu India King Abdullah Univ Sci & Technol KAUST Biosci Program Biol & Environm Sci & Engn BESE Thuwal 23955 Makkah Saudi Arabia 

出 版 物：《MICROBIOME》 (Microbiome)

年 卷 期：2025年第13卷第1期

页      面：1-27页

核心收录：

基　　金：KAUST Baseline Grant King Abdullah University of Science and Technology Ministry of Education, Government of India 

主　　题：Extreme environment Cleanroom Phylogenomics Novel species Phoenix mission BGCs 

摘      要：BackgroundHuman-designed oligotrophic environments, such as cleanrooms, harbor unique microbial communities shaped by selective pressures like temperature, humidity, nutrient availability, cleaning reagents, and radiation. Maintaining the biological cleanliness of NASA s mission-associated cleanrooms, where spacecraft are assembled and tested, is critical for planetary protection. Even with stringent controls such as regulated airflow, temperature management, and rigorous cleaning, resilient microorganisms can persist in these environments, posing potential risks for space *** the Phoenix spacecraft mission, genomes of 215 bacterial isolates were sequenced and based on overall genome-related indices, 53 strains belonging to 26 novel species were recognized. Metagenome mapping indicated less than 0.1% of the reads associated with novel species, suggesting their rarity. Genes responsible for biofilm formation, such as BolA (COG0271) and CvpA (COG1286), were predominantly found in proteobacterial members but were absent in other non-spore-forming and spore-forming species. YqgA (COG1811) was detected in most spore-forming members but was absent in Paenibacillus and non-spore-forming species. Cell fate regulators, COG1774 (YaaT), COG3679 (YlbF, YheA/YmcA), and COG4550 (YmcA, YheA/YmcA), controlling sporulation, competence, and biofilm development processes, were observed in all spore-formers but were missing in non-spore-forming species. COG analyses further revealed resistance-conferring proteins in all spore-formers (n = 13 species) and eight actinobacterial species, responsible for enhanced membrane transport and signaling under radiation (COG3253), transcription regulation under radiation stress (COG1108), and DNA repair and stress responses (COG2318). Additional functional analysis revealed that Agrococcus phoenicis, Microbacterium canaveralium, and Microbacterium jpeli contained biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) for epsilon-poly-L-lysine, benefi