Resistance of bacterial spores to space radiation – from wow to how?

Kurzfassung

Introduction: Spores of Bacillus subtilis have been used extensively as biological indicators for industrial purposes such as sterilization or decontamination. Spores have also been shown to be suitable dosimeters for probing terrestrial and extraterrestrial ionizing radiation in environmental and astrobiological studies. Synergistic radioprotective effects of core components, including small acid-soluble spore proteins (SASP), dipicolinic acid (DPA), core water content, and a network of different DNA repair mechanisms are important in preventing DNA damage generated by UV or ionizing radiation.