Resistance of sp. to environmental factors of International Space Station (ISS) orbit; Microbes exposure experiment at ISS in the mission "Tanpopo"

Kawaguchi, Yuko*; Yang, Y.*; Kawashiri, Narutoshi*; Shiraishi, Keisuke*; Shimizu, Yasuyuki*; Sugino, Tomohiro*; Takahashi, Yuta*; Tanigawa, Yoshiaki*; Narumi, Issei; Sato, Katsuya; Hashimoto, Hirofumi*; Yoshida, Satoshi*; Kobayashi, Kensei*; Nakagawa, Kazumichi*; Yokobori, Shinichi*; Yamagishi, Akihiko*

Tanpopo mission consists of six subthemes. Two of them are on the possible interplanetary migration of microbes - capture experiment of microbes at the ISS orbit and space exposure experiment of microbes. Dried vegetative cells of R1, , and our novel deinococcal species ( and ) isolated from high altitude are the candidates for the exposure experiment. In addition, some defective mutant strains on the DNA repair systems, which might affect survivability of cells under these conditions, are candidates. We are now analyzing resistance of deinococcal species and strains to the harsh environmental conditions simulating ISS environment (exposure to heavy ion beams such as helium ions and repeated temperature change).