“Future built environments, including space stations, could benefit from intentionally fostering diverse microbial communities that better mimic the natural microbial exposures experienced on Earth, rather than relying on highly sanitised spaces,” said Rodolfo Salido of the University of California, San Diego and a co-author of the paper.
Prof Rob Knight, a microbiologist at the University of California, San Diego and a senior author on the paper, said: “There’s a big difference between exposure to healthy soil from gardening versus stewing in our own filth, which is kind of what happens if we’re in a strictly enclosed environment with no ongoing input of those healthy sources of microbes from the outside.”.
The study found that the ISS is largely devoid of environmental microbes found in soil and water that are thought to beneficial to the immune system.
Compared with most of the Earth samples, the ISS surfaces were lacking in free-living environmental microbes that are usually found in soil and water.
However, she said caution would be required when considering intentionally seeding a space environment with microbes from Earth.
