Response of cyanobacteria to low atmospheric pressure

Abstract

Maintaining a low pressure environment in a controlled ecological life support system would reduce the technological complexity and resupply cost in the course of the construction of a future manned lunar base. To estimate the effect of a hypobaric environment in a lunar base on biological components, such as higher plants, microbes, and algae, cyanobacteria was used as the model by determining their response of growth, morphology, and physiology when exposed to half of standard atmospheric pressure for 16 days (brought back to standard atmospheric pressure 30 minutes every two days for sampling). The results indicated that the decrease of atmospheric pressure from 100 kPa to 50 kPa reduced the growth rates of Microcystis aeruginosa, Merismopedia sp., Anabaena sp. PCC 7120, and Anabaena flos-aquae. The ratio of carotenoid to chlorophyll a content in the four tested strains increased under low pressure conditions compared to ambient conditions, resulting from the decrease of chlorophyll a and the increase of carotenoid in the cells. Moreover, low pressure induced the reduction of the phycocyanin content in Microcystis aeruginosa, Anabaena sp. PCC 7120, and Anabaena flos-aquae. The result from the ultrastructure observed using SEM indicated that low pressure promoted the production of more extracellular polymeric substances (EPSs) compared to ambient conditions. The results implied that the low pressure environment of 50 kPa in a future lunar base would induce different effects on biological components in a CELSS, which must be considered during the course of designing a future lunar base. The results will be a reference for exploring the response of other biological components, such as plants, microbes, and animals, living in the life support system of a lunar base.