(Source: NASA)Astronauts onboard the closed habitats exploring Mars and other planets in the future may face the risk of asthma, allergies and skin infections from hitchhiking fungi, a NASA study has found. Human presence in closed habitats is associated with changes in the composition of the fungal community – the mycobiome – that grows on surfaces inside the habitat, researchers said. “We used the Inflatable Lunar/Mars Analog Habitat (ILMAH), a unique, simulated closed environment that mimics the conditions found on the International Space Station (ISS) and possible human habitats on other planets. We showed that the overall fungal diversity changed when humans were present,” said Venkateswaran, corresponding author of the study published in the journal Microbiome. Prolonged stays in closed habitats might be stressful for inhabitants and thus lead to decreased immune response, making people more vulnerable to opportunistic pathogens like fungi, researchers said.

Source: Indian Express July 11, 2017 10:27 UTC