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Nasa GeneLab Computomics Reveal Horizontal Gene Transfer on International Space Station Environmental MetagenomesProkaryotic lifeforms can be observed to demonstrate many keen adaptive advantages, perhaps facilitated by a nature simplistic relative to divergent domains of life. In particular, decompartmentalized gene expression facilitates adaptation by allowing free exchange of genetic material, albeit at the cost of increased susceptibility to genetic damage. Thus, these lifeforms must compensate by embracing diverse investment strategies in an attempt to “brute force” the evolvability equation through precipitous genesis, lean metabolic efficiency, and sheer population. This prokaryotic archetype also enables symbiotic relationships with secondary mobile genetic elements known as plasmids, which have been shown to drive evolution on rapid temporal scales through processes such as conjugation and transformation. This study attempts to decipher whether these mechanisms of horizontal gene transfer (HGT) are major factors in determining prokaryote fitness within a unique isolated environment, the International Space Station (ISS). The ISS Microbial Tracking (MT) project has generated a wealth of data concerning the successive reigns of microbial genera that appear to thrive amidst harsh conditions for life. Despite relatively higher doses of ionizing radiation as compared to Earth, complications associated with microgravity, and the anti-microbial mélange deployed, microbial life still persists in this environment. The NASA GeneLab serves as a data repository and analysis platform to enable researchers to access space flight factor related data. With the use of GeneLab’s modern computational suites (computomics), phylogenetic and functional genomic investigations of HGT events were conducted on the data generated from the MT-1 project. The putative data concerning the plasmid population (plasmidome) of the ISS was algorithmically derived and compared to those of habitats with similar environmental dynamics- such as living quarters and hospitals- to investigate whether these HGT elements may play crucial role(s) in shaping the microbiome of this closed habitat that serves as the only inhabited structure in space.
Document ID
20190033201
Acquisition Source
Ames Research Center
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
Bense, Nicholas (Blue Marble Space Seattle, WA, United States)
Singh, Nitin (Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), California Institute of Technology (CalTech) Pasadena, CA, United States)
Lee, Mike (Bay Area Environmental Research Inst. Moffett Field, CA, United States)
Beheshti, Afshin (Wyle Labs., Inc. Moffett Field, CA, United States)
Cekanaviciute, Egle (Universities Space Research Association (USRA) Moffett Field, CA, United States)
Costes, Sylvain (NASA Ames Research Center Moffett Field, CA, United States)
Galazka, Jonathan M. (NASA Ames Research Center Moffett Field, CA, United States)
Venkateswaran, Kasthuri (Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), California Institute of Technology (CalTech) Pasadena, CA, United States)
Date Acquired
November 25, 2019
Publication Date
November 20, 2019
Subject Category
Life Sciences (General)
Report/Patent Number
ARC-E-DAA-TN69321
Meeting Information
Meeting: American Society for Gravitational and Space Research (ASGSR)
Location: Denver, CO
Country: United States
Start Date: November 20, 2019
End Date: November 23, 2019
Sponsors: American Society for Gravitational and Space Research (ASGSR)
Funding Number(s)
CONTRACT_GRANT: 80NSSC17M0054
CONTRACT_GRANT: NNX12AD05A
CONTRACT_GRANT: NNA16BD14C
CONTRACT_GRANT: NNA14AB82C
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Public Use Permitted.

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