Astronauts Identify Mystery Microbes in Space for the 1st Time

Space.com ^ | January 2, 2018 01:37pm ET | Sarah Lewin, Associate Editor |

[BenLurkin]

NASA astronauts successfully sequenced the DNA of microbes found aboard the International Space Station, marking the first time unknown organisms were sequenced and identified entirely in space. Previously, microbes had to be sent to Earth for analysis, and this new sequencing marks an important step in diagnosing astronaut illnesses and, someday, identifying any DNA-based life found on other planets...

...

As a part of the Genes in Space-3 mission, astronauts on the space station last year touched a petri plate to surfaces on the space station and grew the bacteria found there into colonies, which NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson used to amplify and then sequence their DNA. In July 2016, NASA astronaut Kate Rubins became the first to sequence DNA in space, but this latest experiment was both the first time cells were transferred for analysis and the first time unknown organisms were identified in space. (Rubins used mouse DNA sent from Earth.) ...

Whitson and the samples traveled back to Earth in September 2017, when the next phase of the Genes in Space-3 mission began. Scientists sequenced the microbes again on Earth and verified that each had been identified correctly.

Before this experiment, astronauts had amplified DNA for analysis on the space station using a device called the miniPCR thermal cycler, and they had sequenced a DNA sample with the so-called MinION device. But at last, they had successfully combined the two, NASA officials said.

"It was a natural collaboration to put these two pieces of technology together, because individually, they're both great," Wallace said, "but together, they enable extremely powerful molecular biology applications." 

[Nateman]

Andromeda Strain