Spatially resolved multiomics on the neuronal effects induced by spaceflight in mice.

Impairment of the central nervous system (CNS) poses a significant health risk for astronauts during long-duration space missions. In this study, we employed an innovative approach by integrating single-cell multiomics (transcriptomics and chromatin accessibility) with spatial transcriptomics to elucidate the impact of spaceflight on the mouse brain in female mice. Our comparative analysis between ground control and spaceflight-exposed animals revealed significant alterations in essential brain processes including neurogenesis, synaptogenesis and synaptic transmission, particularly affecting the cortex, hippocampus, striatum and neuroendocrine structures. Additionally, we observed astrocyte activation and signs of immune dysfunction. At the pathway level, some spaceflight-induced changes in the brain exhibit similarities with neurodegenerative disorders, marked by oxidative stress and protein misfolding. Our integrated spatial multiomics approach serves as a stepping stone towards understanding spaceflight-induced CNS impairments at the level of individual brain regions and cell types, and provides a basis for comparison in future spaceflight studies. For broader scientific impact, all datasets from this study are available through an interactive data portal, as well as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Open Science Data Repository (OSDR).

Theoretical design of a space bioprocessing system to produce recombinant proteins.

Space-based biomanufacturing has the potential to improve the sustainability of deep space exploration. To advance biomanufacturing, bioprocessing systems need to be developed for space applications. Here, commercial technologies were assessed to design space bioprocessing systems to supply a liquid amine carbon dioxide scrubber with active carbonic anhydrase produced recombinantly. Design workflows encompassed biomass dewatering of 1 L Escherichia coli cultures through to recombinant protein purification. Non-crew time equivalent system mass (ESM) analyses had limited utility for selecting specific technologies. Instead, bioprocessing system designs focused on minimizing complexity and enabling system versatility. Three designs that differed in biomass dewatering and protein purification approaches had nearly equivalent ESM of 357-522 kg eq. Values from the system complexity metric (SCM), technology readiness level (TRL), integration readiness level (IRL), and degree of crew assistance metric identified a simpler, less costly, and easier to operate design for automated biomass dewatering, cell lysis, and protein affinity purification.

Biofilm formation of Pseudomonas aeruginosa in spaceflight is minimized on lubricant impregnated surfaces.

The undesirable, yet inevitable, presence of bacterial biofilms in spacecraft poses a risk to the proper functioning of systems and to astronauts' health. To mitigate the risks that arise from them, it is important to understand biofilms' behavior in microgravity. As part of the Space Biofilms project, biofilms of Pseudomonas aeruginosa were grown in spaceflight over material surfaces. Stainless Steel 316 (SS316) and passivated SS316 were tested for their relevance as spaceflight hardware components, while a lubricant impregnated surface (LIS) was tested as potential biofilm control strategy. The morphology and gene expression of biofilms were characterized. Biofilms in microgravity are less robust than on Earth. LIS strongly inhibits biofilm formation compared to SS. Furthermore, this effect is even greater in spaceflight than on Earth, making LIS a promising option for spacecraft use. Transcriptomic profiles for the different conditions are presented, and potential mechanisms of biofilm reduction on LIS are discussed.

Challenges and considerations for single-cell and spatially resolved transcriptomics sample collection during spaceflight.

Single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) and spatially resolved transcriptomics (SRT) have experienced rapid development in recent years. The findings of spaceflight-based scRNA-seq and SRT investigations are likely to improve our understanding of life in space and our comprehension of gene expression in various cell systems and tissue dynamics. However, compared to their Earth-based counterparts, gene expression experiments conducted in spaceflight have not experienced the same pace of development. Out of the hundreds of spaceflight gene expression datasets available, only a few used scRNA-seq and SRT. In this perspective piece, we explore the growing importance of scRNA-seq and SRT in space biology and discuss the challenges and considerations relevant to robust experimental design to enable growth of these methods in the field.

In vitro relationships of galactic cosmic radiation and epigenetic clocks in human bronchial epithelial cells.

Ionizing radiation is a well-appreciated health risk, precipitant of DNA damage, and contributor to DNA methylation variability. Nevertheless, relationships of ionizing radiation with DNA methylation-based markers of biological age (i.e. epigenetic clocks) remain poorly understood. Using existing data from human bronchial epithelial cells, we examined in vitro relationships of three epigenetic clock measures (Horvath DNAmAge, MiAge, and epiTOC2) with galactic cosmic radiation (GCR), which is particularly hazardous due to its high linear energy transfer (LET) heavy-ion components. High-LET 56Fe was significantly associated with accelerations in epiTOC2 (ß = 192 cell divisions, 95% CI: 71, 313, p-value = .003). We also observed a significant, positive interaction of 56Fe ions and time-in-culture with epiTOC2 (95% CI: 42, 441, p-value = .019). However, only the direct 56Fe ion association remained statistically significant after adjusting for multiple hypothesis testing. Epigenetic clocks were not significantly associated with high-LET 28Si and low-LET X-rays. Our results demonstrate sensitivities of specific epigenetic clock measures to certain forms of GCR. These findings suggest that epigenetic clocks may have some utility for monitoring and better understanding the health impacts of GCR.

Microbial production of megadalton titin yields fibers with advantageous mechanical properties.

Manmade high-performance polymers are typically non-biodegradable and derived from petroleum feedstock through energy intensive processes involving toxic solvents and byproducts. While engineered microbes have been used for renewable production of many small molecules, direct microbial synthesis of high-performance polymeric materials remains a major challenge. Here we engineer microbial production of megadalton muscle titin polymers yielding high-performance fibers that not only recapture highly desirable properties of natural titin (i.e., high damping capacity and mechanical recovery) but also exhibit high strength, toughness, and damping energy - outperforming many synthetic and natural polymers. Structural analyses and molecular modeling suggest these properties derive from unique inter-chain crystallization of folded immunoglobulin-like domains that resists inter-chain slippage while permitting intra-chain unfolding. These fibers have potential applications in areas from biomedicine to textiles, and the developed approach, coupled with the structure-function insights, promises to accelerate further innovation in microbial production of high-performance materials.

Immunological and hematological outcomes following protracted low dose/low dose rate ionizing radiation and simulated microgravity.

Using a ground-based model to simulate spaceflight [21-days of single-housed, hindlimb unloading (HLU) combined with continuous low-dose gamma irradiation (LDR, total dose of 0.04 Gy)], an in-depth survey of the immune and hematological systems of mice at 7-days post-exposure was performed. Collected blood was profiled with a hematology analyzer and spleens were analyzed by whole transcriptome shotgun sequencing (RNA-sequencing). The results revealed negligible differences in immune differentials. However, hematological system analyses of whole blood indicated large disparities in red blood cell differentials and morphology, suggestive of anemia. Murine Reactome networks indicated majority of spleen cells displayed differentially expressed genes (DEG) involved in signal transduction, metabolism, cell cycle, chromatin organization, and DNA repair. Although immune differentials were not changed, DEG analysis of the spleen revealed expression profiles associated with inflammation and dysregulated immune function persist to 1-week post-simulated spaceflight. Additionally, specific regulation pathways associated with human blood disease gene orthologs, such as blood pressure regulation, transforming growth factor-ß receptor signaling, and B cell differentiation were noted. Collectively, this study revealed differential immune and hematological outcomes 1-week post-simulated spaceflight conditions, suggesting recovery from spaceflight is an unremitting process.

CPA: a web-based platform for consensus pathway analysis and interactive visualization.

In molecular biology and genetics, there is a large gap between the ease of data collection and our ability to extract knowledge from these data. Contributing to this gap is the fact that living organisms are complex systems whose emerging phenotypes are the results of multiple complex interactions taking place on various pathways. This demands powerful yet user-friendly pathway analysis tools to translate the now abundant high-throughput data into a better understanding of the underlying biological phenomena. Here we introduce Consensus Pathway Analysis (CPA), a web-based platform that allows researchers to (i) perform pathway analysis using eight established methods (GSEA, GSA, FGSEA, PADOG, Impact Analysis, ORA/Webgestalt, KS-test, Wilcox-test), (ii) perform meta-analysis of multiple datasets, (iii) combine methods and datasets to accurately identify the impacted pathways underlying the studied condition and (iv) interactively explore impacted pathways, and browse relationships between pathways and genes. The platform supports three types of input: (i) a list of differentially expressed genes, (ii) genes and fold changes and (iii) an expression matrix. It also allows users to import data from NCBI GEO. The CPA platform currently supports the analysis of multiple organisms using KEGG and Gene Ontology, and it is freely available at http://cpa.tinnguyen-lab.com.

NASA GeneLab RNA-seq consensus pipeline: standardized processing of short-read RNA-seq data.

With the development of transcriptomic technologies, we are able to quantify precise changes in gene expression profiles from astronauts and other organisms exposed to spaceflight. Members of NASA GeneLab and GeneLab-associated analysis working groups (AWGs) have developed a consensus pipeline for analyzing short-read RNA-sequencing data from spaceflight-associated experiments. The pipeline includes quality control, read trimming, mapping, and gene quantification steps, culminating in the detection of differentially expressed genes. This data analysis pipeline and the results of its execution using data submitted to GeneLab are now all publicly available through the GeneLab database. We present here the full details and rationale for the construction of this pipeline in order to promote transparency, reproducibility, and reusability of pipeline data; to provide a template for data processing of future spaceflight-relevant datasets; and to encourage cross-analysis of data from other databases with the data available in GeneLab.

Microbiome Metadata Standards: Report of the National Microbiome Data Collaborative's Workshop and Follow-On Activities.

Microbiome samples are inherently defined by the environment in which they are found. Therefore, data that provide context and enable interpretation of measurements produced from biological samples, often referred to as metadata, are critical. Important contributions have been made in the development of community-driven metadata standards; however, these standards have not been uniformly embraced by the microbiome research community. To understand how these standards are being adopted, or the barriers to adoption, across research domains, institutions, and funding agencies, the National Microbiome Data Collaborative (NMDC) hosted a workshop in October 2019. This report provides a summary of discussions that took place throughout the workshop, as well as outcomes of the working groups initiated at the workshop.

A New Era for Space Life Science: International Standards for Space Omics Processing.

Space agencies have announced plans for human missions to the Moon to prepare for Mars. However, the space environment presents stressors that include radiation, microgravity, and isolation. Understanding how these factors affect biology is crucial for safe and effective crewed space exploration. There is a need to develop countermeasures, to adapt plants and microbes for nutrient sources and bioregenerative life support, and to limit pathogen infection. Scientists across the world are conducting space omics experiments on model organisms and, more recently, on humans. Optimal extraction of actionable scientific discoveries from these precious datasets will only occur at the collective level with improved standardization. To address this shortcoming, we established ISSOP (International Standards for Space Omics Processing), an international consortium of scientists who aim to enhance standard guidelines between space biologists at a global level. Here we introduce our consortium and share past lessons learned and future challenges related to spaceflight omics.

RNAseq Analysis of Rodent Spaceflight Experiments Is Confounded by Sample Collection Techniques.

To understand the physiological changes that occur in response to spaceflight, mice are transported to the International Space Station (ISS) and housed for variable periods of time before euthanasia on-orbit or return to Earth. Sample collection under such difficult conditions introduces confounding factors that need to be identified and addressed. We found large changes in the transcriptome of mouse tissues dissected and preserved on-orbit compared with tissues from mice euthanized on-orbit, preserved, and dissected after return to Earth. Changes due to preservation method eclipsed those between flight and ground samples, making it difficult to identify spaceflight-specific changes. Follow-on experiments to interrogate the roles of euthanasia methods, tissue and carcass preservation protocols, and library preparation methods suggested that differences due to preservation protocols are exacerbated when coupled with polyA selection. This has important implications for the interpretation of existing datasets and the design of future experiments.

A Longitudinal Epigenetic Aging and Leukocyte Analysis of Simulated Space Travel: The Mars-500 Mission.

Astronauts undertaking long-duration space missions may be vulnerable to unique stressors that can impact human aging. Nevertheless, few studies have examined the relationship of mission duration with DNA-methylation-based biomarkers of aging in astronauts. Using data from the six participants of the Mars-500 mission, a high-fidelity 520-day ground simulation experiment, we tested relationships of mission duration with five longitudinally measured blood DNA-methylation-based metrics: DNAmGrimAge, DNAmPhenoAge, DNA-methylation-based estimator of telomere length (DNAmTL), mitotic divisions (epigenetic mitotic clock [epiTOC2]), and pace of aging (PoA). We provide evidence that, relative to baseline, mission duration was associated with significant decreases in epigenetic aging. However, only decreases in DNAmPhenoAge remained significant 7 days post-mission. We also observed significant changes in estimated proportions of plasmablasts, CD4T, CD8 naive, and natural killer (NK) cells. Only decreases in NK cells remained significant post-mission. If confirmed more broadly, these findings contribute insights to improve the understanding of the biological aging implications for individuals experiencing long-duration space travel.

Author Correction: Multi-omics analysis of multiple missions to space reveal a theme of lipid dysregulation in mouse liver.

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

Multi-omics analysis of multiple missions to space reveal a theme of lipid dysregulation in mouse liver.

Spaceflight has several detrimental effects on the physiology of astronauts, many of which are recapitulated in rodent models. Mouse studies performed on the Space Shuttle showed disruption of lipid metabolism in liver. However, given that these animals were not sacrificed on-orbit and instead returned live to earth, it is unclear if these disruptions were solely induced by space stressors (e.g. microgravity, space radiation) or in part explained by the stress of return to Earth. In this work we analyzed three liver datasets from two different strains of mice (C57BL/6 (Jackson) & BALB/c (Taconic)) flown aboard the International Space Station (ISS). Notably, these animals were sacrificed on-orbit and exposed to varying spaceflight durations (i.e. 21, 37, and 42 days vs 13 days for the Shuttle mice). Oil Red O (ORO) staining showed abnormal lipid accumulation in all space-flown mice compared to ground controls regardless of strain or exposure duration. Similarly, transcriptomic analysis by RNA-sequencing revealed several pathways that were affected in both strains related to increased lipid metabolism, fatty acid metabolism, lipid and fatty acid processing, lipid catabolic processing, and lipid localization. In addition, key upstream regulators were predicted to be commonly regulated across all conditions including Glucagon (GCG) and Insulin (INS). Moreover, quantitative proteomic analysis showed that a number of lipid related proteins were changed in the livers during spaceflight. Taken together, these data indicate that activation of lipotoxic pathways are the result of space stressors alone and this activation occurs in various genetic backgrounds during spaceflight exposures of weeks to months. If similar responses occur in humans, a prolonged change of these pathways may result in the development of liver disease and should be investigated further.

Seeded Chain-Growth Polymerization of Proteins in Living Bacterial Cells.

Microbially produced protein-based materials (PBMs) are appealing due to use of renewable feedstock, low energy requirements, tunable side-chain chemistry, and biodegradability. However, high-strength PBMs typically have high molecular weights (HMW) and repetitive sequences that are difficult to microbially produce due to genetic instability and metabolic burden. We report the development of a biosynthetic strategy termed seeded chain-growth polymerization (SCP) for synthesis of HMW PBMs in living bacterial cells. SCP uses split intein (SI) chemistry to cotranslationally polymerize relatively small, genetically stable material protein subunits, effectively preventing intramolecular cyclization. We apply SCP to bioproduction of spider silk in Escherichia coli, generating HMW spider silk proteins (spidroins) up to 300 kDa, resulting in spidroin fibers of high strength, modulus, and toughness. SCP provides a modular strategy to synthesize HMW, repetitive material proteins, and may facilitate bioproduction of a variety of high-performance PBMs for broad applications.

Mice Exposed to Combined Chronic Low-Dose Irradiation and Modeled Microgravity Develop Long-Term Neurological Sequelae.

Spaceflight poses many challenges for humans. Ground-based analogs typically focus on single parameters of spaceflight and their associated acute effects. This study assesses the long-term transcriptional effects following single and combination spaceflight analog conditions using the mouse model: simulated microgravity via hindlimb unloading (HLU) and/or low-dose γ-ray irradiation (LDR) for 21 days, followed by 4 months of readaptation. Changes in gene expression and epigenetic modifications in brain samples during readaptation were analyzed by whole transcriptome shotgun sequencing (RNA-seq) and reduced representation bisulfite sequencing (RRBS). The results showed minimal gene expression and cytosine methylation alterations at 4 months readaptation within single treatment conditions of HLU or LDR. In contrast, following combined HLU+LDR, gene expression and promoter methylation analyses showed multiple altered pathways involved in neurogenesis and neuroplasticity, the regulation of neuropeptides, and cellular signaling. In brief, neurological readaptation following combined chronic LDR and HLU is a dynamic process that involves pathways that regulate neuronal function and structure and may lead to late onset neurological sequelae.

Exploring the Effects of Spaceflight on Mouse Physiology using the Open Access NASA GeneLab Platform.

Performing biological experiments in space requires special accommodations and procedures to ensure that these investigations are performed effectively and efficiently. Moreover, given the infrequency of these experiments it is imperative that their impacts be maximized. The rapid advancement of omics technologies offers an opportunity to dramatically increase the volume of data produced from precious spaceflight specimens. To capitalize on this, NASA has developed the GeneLab platform to provide unrestricted access to spaceflight omics data and encourage its widespread analysis. Rodents (both rats and mice) are common model organisms used by scientists to investigate space-related biological impacts. The enclosure that house rodents during spaceflight are called Rodent Habitats (formerly Animal Enclosure Modules), and are substantially different from standard vivarium cages in their dimensions, air flow, and access to water and food. In addition, due to environmental and atmospheric conditions on the International Space Station (ISS), animals are exposed to a higher CO2 concentration. We recently reported that mice in the Rodent Habitats experience large changes in their transcriptome irrespective of whether animals were on the ground or in space. Furthermore, these changes were consistent with a hypoxic response, potentially driven by higher CO2 concentrations. Here we describe how a typical rodent experiment is performed in space, how omics data from these experiments can be accessed through the GeneLab platform, and how to identify key factors in this data. Using this process, any individual can make critical discoveries that could change the design of future space missions and activities.

GeneLab: Omics database for spaceflight experiments.

MOTIVATION: To curate and organize expensive spaceflight experiments conducted aboard space stations and maximize the scientific return of investment, while democratizing access to vast amounts of spaceflight related omics data generated from several model organisms. RESULTS: The GeneLab Data System (GLDS) is an open access database containing fully coordinated and curated 'omics' (genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics) data, detailed metadata and radiation dosimetry for a variety of model organisms. GLDS is supported by an integrated data system allowing federated search across several public bioinformatics repositories. Archived datasets can be queried using full-text search (e.g. keywords, Boolean and wildcards) and results can be sorted in multifactorial manner using assistive filters. GLDS also provides a collaborative platform built on GenomeSpace for sharing files and analyses with collaborators. It currently houses 172 datasets and supports standard guidelines for submission of datasets, MIAME (for microarray), ENCODE Consortium Guidelines (for RNA-seq) and MIAPE Guidelines (for proteomics). AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION: https://genelab.nasa.gov/.