Kombucha “Superpowers” in space: much more than just a drink

Kombucha is in fashion. crowd influencers advertise your benefits and even the employer Carlos Rios used it as an ingredient in her Realfooding Cola soft drink. Such is his boom like new soda healthy that it was even suggested that astronauts take it into space to have probiotic drink good for your health. What has not been considered so far is that the same teaspoon can help them. get pulp in space.

This sentence is taken from a study published last March in frontiers of microbiology an international group of scientists. It originally began with the goal of analyzing the survival on the International Space Station of the microorganisms responsible for fermenting kombucha. Many of them didn’t survive. adverse space conditions. However, others managed to get ahead. And among those who did, he singled out bacterium Komagataeibacter oboediensknown for its ability to synthesize cellulose.

This was a good idea as it could be used by future space colonizers to get textile fibers or paper. They can even improve soil conditions for growing food!

An experiment demonstrating the “superpowers” of kombucha

Kombucha is a drink made from tea fermentation mediated by a very specific group of bacteria and yeasts.

The presence of these enzymes makes it a very useful probiotic drink. For some, this is a superfood, although it is more than proven that superfoods do not exist, this is marketing.

But these enzymes can be helpful outside the gut its consumers. For this reason, the authors of the study, which we are commenting on today, decided to send to the International Space Station dehydrated kombucha biofilm. Biofilms are tapestry structures formed by one or more species of microorganisms adhering to a surface. This is, for example, the reason that kitchen napkins become slippery after a while. We don’t see it, but this texture is formed by a biofilm full of bacteria.

In this case, the biofilm resulting from the dehydration of kombucha was placed outside the International Space Station under martian atmosphere. stayed there 18 monthsafter which he returned to Earth and it was recultivated for two and a half years.

That’s how they saw it many microorganisms died from cosmic radiation and other hostile space parameters. Nonetheless, K. oboidens could reproduce without problems.. And not only grew up. He was also able to continue the synthesis of cellulose.

not everything was perfect

It is noteworthy that this bacterium was not intact. The authors of the study found that extrachromosomal genetic material Yes, it was affected by radiation. As well as genes encoding proteins associated with CRISPR. Let’s not forget that although this has become a very useful tool in genetic engineering, it is still a defense mechanism for bacteria.

But neither this defense mechanism nor extrachromosomal DNA is associated with the cellulose synthesis pathway. Therefore, this advantage of taking kombucha into space was still intact.

What is cellulose used for?

The good news about this discovery is that this cellulose could have many uses. We know that cellulose is part of plant cell wallstherefore, it can be used to produce plant-based products. For example, one could get paper and cotton fibers for making clothes.

But that’s not all, as it can also be used to protect nitrogen-fixing organisms which allow the soil to grow plants. And the fact is that in the conditions of future space colonization, kombucha will be something more than a drink for realfooders.