Abstract
Fungi are eukaryotic organisms that are among the most widely distributed group of life forms. There are approximately 144,000 known species of fungi, but estimates suggest this is less than a tenth of the total species. They can be found free living in soil and water, in nutrient-high environments such as starchy substrates, including bread and potatoes, or in nutrient-low environments, such as on damp walls and windowsills. Some are associated with the mammalian microbiome, others are parasitic. Fungi are environmentally and medically important and many species have a role in food and pharmaceutical production. The scope of this kingdom of organisms makes it no surprise that several species have been studied in microgravity to better understand organismal impacts on the built environment, the health risk to crew, adaptations of eukaryotic cells to a novel extreme environment, as a eukaryotic model system, and manufacturing potential. Only a small number of organisms in this kingdom have been studied or found in space and we will highlight some of those findings in this chapter. Among the many types of fungi including rusts and smuts, the most common studied in microgravity include yeasts, molds, and lichen. Yeast studies will not be a focus of this chapter as they have been reviewed, in part, by Hammond and Birdsall in this handbook (Chap. 33, “Yeast in Space”).
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Nielsen, S., Schauer, R. (2022). Fungal Experiments in Space. In: Pathak, Y.V., Araújo dos Santos, M., Zea, L. (eds) Handbook of Space Pharmaceuticals. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05526-4_37
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05526-4_37
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