On the growth dynamics of the cyanobacterium Anabaena sp. PCC 7938 in Martian regolith.

ABSTRACT: The sustainability of crewed infrastructures on Mars will depend on their abilities to produce consumables on site. These abilities may be supported by diazotrophic, rock-leaching cyanobacteria: from resources naturally available on Mars, they could feed downstream biological processes and lead to the production of oxygen, food, fuels, structural materials, pharmaceuticals and more. The relevance of such a system will be dictated largely by the efficiency of regolith utilization by cyanobacteria. We therefore describe the growth dynamics of Anabaena sp. PCC 7938 as a function of MGS-1 concentration (a simulant of a widespread type of Martian regolith), of perchlorate concentration, and of their combination. To help devise improvement strategies and predict dynamics in regolith of differing

SUBMITTER: Ramalho TP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9606272 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature