Potential biofilm control strategies for extended spaceflight missions

Stability of Antimicrobial Drug Molecules in Different Gravitational and Radiation Conditions in View of Applications during Outer Space Missions

“…The latest investigation by Zea et al aimed to characterize biofilm production, grow and gene expression in microgravity on different materials [133], more data on this topic being reviewed in References. [137,138]. The relevance of such research has been signaled when microbial contaminations were reported onboard space stations.…”

Graphene Coating as an Effective Barrier to Prevent Bacteria-Mediated Dissolution of Gold

“…Although controlled bioleaching processes are mainly used in these biohydrometallurgy applications [35][36][37] and for metal recovery from e-waste [38,39], the presence of unwanted bioleaching-producing bacteria on metallic surfaces can be detrimental for specific environments. This is the case for the International Space Station (ISS), where bioleaching-producing bacteria have been found at its Potable Water Dispenser system and other supply systems [25,40,41]. This indicates a potential risk of biodegradation and deterioration of operational characteristics of metallic materials, which can cause failures and disturbances in the functioning of various devices [42].…”

“…MIC prevails in diverse industries and sectors where biofilms are formed on surfaces, and leads to degradation and failure of materials such as carbon steel [3][4][5], aluminum alloys [6][7][8], copper and copper alloys [9][10][11], stainless steel [12][13][14] and concrete [15][16][17]. Some microorganisms in biofilms exhibit extreme tolerance to hostile environments such as acidic and alkaline pH, low and higher temperatures, as well as pressure gradients, and as consequence, MIC has been found in power plants [18], oil and gas pipelines [19], public water supply systems [20], sewers [21], marine engineering infrastructure [22], water cooled heat exchangers [12], radioactive disposal facilities [23], medical devices [24], and even in the water recovery system of the International Space Station (ISS) [24,25] and the Chinese space station [26]. While most metallic materials are affected by this type of corrosion, in the case of gold, MIC has not been found, primarily because of the metal's noble nature.…”

“…C. metallidurans strain CH34, a metal-resistant Gram-negative bacterium, with both the capacity of gold bioleaching and gold biomineralization for the synthesis of gold nuggets [61,62], was used to favor biofilm-induced gold dissolution [63,64]. Moreover, this microorganism is adapted to environments with microgravity such as space stations, where it has been identified and isolated during numerous monitoring campaigns from different space-related environments [25,40,41,65]. Nanoscale morphological characterization of graphene-coated and uncoated Au substrate after C. metallidurans exposure was mainly carried out using scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), a powerful tool for nondestructive topographical and morphological testing with high spatial resolution, that it has not been previously reported for the study of this type of biodegradation process.…”

Copper Surfaces in Biofilm Control

“…In a recent review, Flemming [ 4 ] describes the huge impact of biofouling in a wide variety of systems: ion exchangers, membrane separation technologies, cooling systems, ship hulls, ship fuel systems, piping, sea chests, fuel and hydraulic systems, marine sensors, aquaculture, drinking water and plumbing systems, food, beverage and milk industries, paper industry, agriculture, cultural heritage, air condition systems and medical devices. The presence of sessile microorganisms in all these environments represents high economic impact for industries and systems, due to corrosion acceleration and coatings/materials deterioration (cooling systems [ 5 ], ships [ 6 ], drinking water and plumbing systems [ 7 ], cultural heritage [ 8 ], spacecraft equipment [ 9 ] and aircraft equipment [ 10 ]), increase of energy consumption (ships [ 11 ] and hydraulic systems [ 12 ]), deterioration/spoilage of products (food, beverage [ 13 ], dairy [ 14 ] industries, paper industry [ 15 ], water distribution systems [ 16 ] and agriculture [ 17 ]), yield/efficiency reduction (hydraulic systems [ 12 ] and membrane separation technologies [ 18 ]) and infection spread (cooling systems [ 5 ], air conditioning [ 19 ], aquaculture [ 20 ] and medical devices [ 21 ]). Further costs for biofilm/biofouling cleaning and disinfection should be considered [ 4 ].…”