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Exposure to elevated relative humidity in laboratory chambers alters fungal gene expression in dust from the International Space Station (ISS)

Metadata Updated: August 30, 2025

Microbes are present in all occupied indoor environments, including the International Space Station (ISS). An unexpected ventilation system failure may lead to microbial and fungal growth that is associated with material degradation or negative health effects. There is a need for improved understanding of fungal function when exposed to moisture in indoor spaces. A de novo metatranscriptomic study was performed using dust collected from within the ISS. After returning to Earth, dust was incubated in laboratory chambers to simulate relative humidity conditions of 50%, 85%, or 100% equilibrium relative humidity (ERH) for 1-week. Changes in fungal function (gene expression) were associated with moisture exposure. Genes associated with secondary metabolism and fungal growth were significantly upregulated (p ≤ 0.001, log2FC ≥ 2) at elevated RH conditions (85% or 100% ERH). Elevated moisture conditions showed an increased expression of mycotoxin and fungal allergen genes such as Asp f 4 and Alt a 7 (log2FC ≥ 5). These results demonstrate that understanding microbial gene expression in response to elevated moisture will help improve microbial monitoring standards for confined spacecraft environments and help protect astronaut health and spacecraft integrity.

Access & Use Information

Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: No license information was provided. If this work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties it is considered a U.S. Government Work.

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Dates

Metadata Created Date June 13, 2025
Metadata Updated Date August 30, 2025

Metadata Source

Harvested from NASA Data.json

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date June 13, 2025
Metadata Updated Date August 30, 2025
Publisher Open Science Data Repository
Maintainer
Identifier 10.26030/60zg-2n28
Data Last Modified 2025-08-21
Category Biological and Physical Sciences
Public Access Level public
Bureau Code 026:00
Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
Harvest Object Id 99dbed25-9ecb-4259-b2d8-29c14d9ad9c4
Harvest Source Id 58f92550-7a01-4f00-b1b2-8dc953bd598f
Harvest Source Title NASA Data.json
Program Code 026:000
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash 744679a018d6b216ceb73ba215e013354d6c48ac2092379554992f896bb45153
Source Schema Version 1.1

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