Hardy Bacterium Isolated From Two Geographically Distinct Spacecraft Assembly Cleanroom Facilities A new species merits further study. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California

Earlier studies have confirmed that a cious microbes is known to exist in these could gain access to a spacecraft, and tenacious hardy bacterial population assembly facilities. possibly survive en route to extraterres- manages to persist and survive through- This study reports on the isolation trial systems. Tersicoccus and members of out a spacecraft assembly process. The and identification of two gram-positive, the Arthrobacter genus are metabolically widespread detection of these organ- non-motile, non-spore-forming bacter- versatile, producing many different en- isms underscores the challenges in ial strains from the spacecraft assembly zymes allowing them to grow on a wide eliminating them completely. Only facilities at Kennedy Space Center, range of substrates, including agricul- comprehensive and repetitive micro- Florida, USA and Centre Spatial tural pesticides, radioactive waste, and bial diversity studies of geographically Guyanais, Kourou, French Guiana. high concentration of toxic pollutant. distinct cleanroom facilities will bolster DNA-DNA relatedness values between Previously undescribed Tersicoccus phoeni- the understanding of planetary protec- the novel strains indicates that these cis, isolated from two distinct cleanroom tion relevant microbes. Extensive char- novel strains were indeed members of a facilities, may exhibit even greater re- acterizations of the physiological traits same species. Phylogenetic evidence de- silience than other microbial strains due demonstrated by cleanroom microbes rived from a 16S ribosomal DNA analy- to their selective adaptation to clean- will aid NASA in gauging the forward sis indicated that both the novel strains room environments. Thus, it is in the contamination risk that hardy bacteria are less closely related to all other best interest of NASA to characterize (such as Tersicoccus phoenicis) pose to Arthrobacter species. Based on phyloge- this organism thoroughly, which will fur- spacecraft. netic and phenotypic results, it is con- ther assess in determining the potential Rigorous standards are in place for cluded that these strains represent a for forward contamination and develop- the cleaning and monitoring of space- new species of the novel genus Tersicoc- ment of more effective bioburden re- craft assembly environments to help cus, for which the name Tersicoccus duction, cleaning, and sterilization tech- minimize the inadvertent forward con- phoenicis sp. nov. is proposed. The pres- nologies. tamination by microorganisms during ence of Tersicoccus phoenicis exclusively in This work was done by Parag A. Vaisham- space missions. Cleanroom environ- the cleanroom environments from two payan and Kasthuri J. Venkateswaran of Cal- ments are oligotrophic (low-nutrient distinct geographical locations suggests tech; Petra Schwendner of the German Aero- level), desiccated (humidity con- selective adaptation and a significant space Center; and Christine Moissl-Eichinger trolled), certified to a defined low parti- role for these microorganisms in these of Regensburg University, Germany, for cle concentration, and maintained at environments. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. For more constant temperature. Yet despite these Microbes residing in the cleanrooms information, contact [email protected]. unfavorable conditions, a subset of tena- during the spacecraft assembly process NPO-48065

26 NASA Tech Briefs, June 2012