PMID- 20703318
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 20110407
LR  - 20211020
IS  - 1751-7370 (Electronic)
IS  - 1751-7362 (Print)
IS  - 1751-7362 (Linking)
VI  - 5
IP  - 2
DP  - 2011 Feb
TI  - Archaea in artificial environments: their presence in global spacecraft clean 
      rooms and impact on planetary protection.
PG  - 209-19
LID - 10.1038/ismej.2010.124 [doi]
AB  - The presence and role of Archaea in artificial, human-controlled environments is 
      still unclear. The search for Archaea has been focused on natural biotopes where 
      they have been found in overwhelming numbers, and with amazing properties. 
      However, they are considered as one of the major group of microorganisms that 
      might be able to survive a space flight, or even to thrive on other planets. 
      Although still concentrating on aerobic, bacterial spores as a proxy for 
      spacecraft cleanliness, space agencies are beginning to consider Archaea as a 
      possible contamination source that could affect future searches for life on other 
      planets. This study reports on the discovery of archaeal 16S rRNA gene signatures 
      not only in US American spacecraft assembly clean rooms but also in facilities in 
      Europe and South America. Molecular methods revealed the presence of 
      Crenarchaeota in all clean rooms sampled, while signatures derived from 
      methanogens and a halophile appeared only sporadically. Although no Archaeon was 
      successfully enriched in our multiassay cultivation approach thus far, samples 
      from a European clean room revealed positive archaeal fluorescence in situ 
      hybridization (FISH) signals of rod-shaped microorganisms, representing the first 
      visualization of Archaea in clean room environments. The molecular and visual 
      detection of Archaea was supported by the first quantitative PCR studies of clean 
      rooms, estimating the overall quantity of Archaea therein. The significant 
      presence of Archaea in these extreme environments in distinct geographical 
      locations suggests a larger role for these microorganisms not only in natural 
      biotopes, but also in human controlled and rigorously cleaned environments.
FAU - Moissl-Eichinger, Christine
AU  - Moissl-Eichinger C
AD  - Institute for Microbiology and Archaea Center, Universitaet Regensburg, 
      Universitaetsstrasse 31, Regensburg, Germany. 
      christine.moissl-eichinger@biologie.uni-regensburg.de
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
PT  - Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
DEP - 20100812
PL  - England
TA  - ISME J
JT  - The ISME journal
JID - 101301086
RN  - 0 (RNA, Ribosomal, 16S)
SB  - IM
MH  - Archaea/classification/genetics/isolation & purification/*physiology
MH  - Biodiversity
MH  - Crenarchaeota/classification/genetics/isolation & purification/physiology
MH  - *Environment, Controlled
MH  - *Environmental Microbiology
MH  - Europe
MH  - Genes, Archaeal/genetics
MH  - In Situ Hybridization, Fluorescence
MH  - Phylogeny
MH  - Polymerase Chain Reaction
MH  - RNA, Ribosomal, 16S/genetics
MH  - South America
MH  - Spacecraft
PMC - PMC3105705
EDAT- 2010/08/13 06:00
MHDA- 2011/04/08 06:00
PMCR- 2012/02/01
CRDT- 2010/08/13 06:00
PHST- 2010/08/13 06:00 [entrez]
PHST- 2010/08/13 06:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2011/04/08 06:00 [medline]
PHST- 2012/02/01 00:00 [pmc-release]
AID - ismej2010124 [pii]
AID - 10.1038/ismej.2010.124 [doi]
PST - ppublish
SO  - ISME J. 2011 Feb;5(2):209-19. doi: 10.1038/ismej.2010.124. Epub 2010 Aug 12.