Simulated Micro-, Lunar, and Martian Gravities on Earth—Effects on <i>Escherichia coli</i> Growth, Phenotype, and Sensitivity to Antibiotics

oleh: Lily A. Allen, Amir H. Kalani, Frederico Estante, Aaron J. Rosengren, Louis Stodieck, David Klaus, Luis Zea

Format: Article
Diterbitkan: MDPI AG 2022-09-01

Deskripsi

Bacterial behavior has been studied under microgravity conditions, but very little is known about it under lunar and Martian gravitational regimes. An Earth-based approach was designed and implemented using inclined clinostats and an in-house-developed code to determine the optimal clinorotation angular speed for bacterial liquid cultures of 5 RPM. With this setup, growth dynamics, phenotypic changes, and sensitivity to antibiotics (minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of two different classes of antibiotics) for three <i>Escherichia coli</i> strains (including uropathogenic) were examined under simulated micro-, lunar, and Martian gravities. The results included increased growth under simulated micro- and lunar gravities for some strains, and higher concentrations of antibiotics needed under simulated lunar gravity with respect to simulated micro- and Martian gravities. Clinostat-produced results can be considered suggestive but not determinative of what might be expected in altered gravity, as there is still a need to systematically verify these simulation devices’ ability to accurately replicate phenomena observed in space. Nevertheless, this approach serves as a baseline to start interrogating key cellular and molecular aspects relevant to microbial processes on the lunar and Martian surfaces.