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Title: New Bacteria Have Been Discovered on a Chinese Space Station

Link: https://science.slashdot.org/story/25/05/21/2...

Scientists have discovered a previously unknown bacterium aboard China's
Tiangong space station. "It has been named Niallia tiangongensis, and it
inhabited the cockpit controls on the station, living in microgravity
conditions," reports Wired. From the report: According to China Central
Television, the country's national broadcaster, taikonauts (Chinese
astronauts) collected swab samples from the space station in May 2023, which
were then frozen and sent back to Earth for study. The aim of this work was
to investigate the behavior of microorganisms, gathered from a completely
sealed environment with a human crew, during space travel, as part of the
China Space Station Habitation Area Microbiome Program (CHAMP). A paper
published in the Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology
describes how analysis of samples from the space station revealed this
previously unseen bacterial species, which belongs to the genus Niallia.
Genomic sequencing showed that its closest terrestrial relative is the
bacterium Niallia circulans, although the Tiangong species has substantial
genetic differences. [...] It is unclear whether the newly discovered microbe
evolved on the space station or whether it is part of the vast sea of as yet
unidentified microorganisms on Earth. To date, tens of thousands of bacterial
species have been cataloged, although there are estimated to be billions more
unclassified species on Earth. The discovery of Niallia tiangongensis will
provide a better understanding of the microscopic hazards that the next
generation of space travelers will face and help design sanitation protocols
for extended missions. It is still too early to determine whether the space
bacterium poses any danger to taikonauts aboard Tiangong, although it is
known that its terrestrial relative, Niallia circulans, can cause sepsis,
especially in immunocompromised people.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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