The development of space microbiology in the future: the value and significance of space microbiology research

摘要

The role and mechanisms of the space environment with regard to microorganisms is a cutting-edge issue. China has recently launched the ShenZhou VIII spacecraft that carried 15 species of microorganism to test the response of microorganisms following exposure to the space environment. This revealed that effects were mainly seen in changes to bacterial invasion, antibiotic resistance and environmental adaptation. The mechanisms could be due to multiple changes in the genome, transcriptome, proteome and metabolome, and can be used to explain effects at molecular, cellular, tissue, organ and whole organism levels. Based on these findings, we have proposed the direction of the space microbiology development.