Bacteria flown to space can sense the change in the environment and mutate to become more virulent, a team of US researchers has shown.

Salmonella bacteria flown on a 12-day mission last year have displayed changes in 167 genes and were three times as likely to kill infected mice compared to normal bacteria.

The changes have occurred over a very short period of time and have wide-ranging implications on future manned interplanetary missions, according to Cheryl Nickerson at the centre for infectious diseases at Arizona State University.

"Wherever humans go, microbes go; you can't sterilise humans. Wherever we go, under the oceans or orbiting the Earth, the microbes go with us, and it's important that we understand... how they're going to change," the BBC quoted Nickerson as saying.

Salmonella is one of the most antibiotics-resistant bacteria, to which no vaccine exists. But the same research team has discovered that a large number of changes were regulated by a particular protein, a find that could pave the way for developing a vaccine.

We need your support so Novinite.com can keep delivering news and information about Bulgaria! Thank you!