Frontiers in Microbiology (Mar 2022)

The Space-Exposed Kombucha Microbial Community Member Komagataeibacter oboediens Showed Only Minor Changes in Its Genome After Reactivation on Earth

  • Daniel Santana de Carvalho,
  • Daniel Santana de Carvalho,
  • Ana Paula Trovatti Uetanabaro,
  • Ana Paula Trovatti Uetanabaro,
  • Rodrigo Bentes Kato,
  • Rodrigo Bentes Kato,
  • Flávia Figueira Aburjaile,
  • Arun Kumar Jaiswal,
  • Rodrigo Profeta,
  • Rodrigo Dias De Oliveira Carvalho,
  • Sandeep Tiwar,
  • Anne Cybelle Pinto Gomide,
  • Eduardo Almeida Costa,
  • Olga Kukharenko,
  • Iryna Orlovska,
  • Olga Podolich,
  • Oleg Reva,
  • Pablo Ivan P. Ramos,
  • Vasco Ariston De Carvalho Azevedo,
  • Bertram Brenig,
  • Bruno Silva Andrade,
  • Jean-Pierre P. de Vera,
  • Natalia O. Kozyrovska,
  • Debmalya Barh,
  • Debmalya Barh,
  • Aristóteles Góes-Neto

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2022.782175
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 13

Abstract

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Komagataeibacter is the dominant taxon and cellulose-producing bacteria in the Kombucha Microbial Community (KMC). This is the first study to isolate the K. oboediens genome from a reactivated space-exposed KMC sample and comprehensively characterize it. The space-exposed genome was compared with the Earth-based reference genome to understand the genome stability of K. oboediens under extraterrestrial conditions during a long time. Our results suggest that the genomes of K. oboediens IMBG180 (ground sample) and K. oboediens IMBG185 (space-exposed) are remarkably similar in topology, genomic islands, transposases, prion-like proteins, and number of plasmids and CRISPR-Cas cassettes. Nonetheless, there was a difference in the length of plasmids and the location of cas genes. A small difference was observed in the number of protein coding genes. Despite these differences, they do not affect any genetic metabolic profile of the cellulose synthesis, nitrogen-fixation, hopanoid lipids biosynthesis, and stress-related pathways. Minor changes are only observed in central carbohydrate and energy metabolism pathways gene numbers or sequence completeness. Altogether, these findings suggest that K. oboediens maintains its genome stability and functionality in KMC exposed to the space environment most probably due to the protective role of the KMC biofilm. Furthermore, due to its unaffected metabolic pathways, this bacterial species may also retain some promising potential for space applications.

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