[Fungal biota in manned space environment and impact on human health]

It is important to promote microbiological research essential for long-term manned space activities under microgravity and in a completely closed environment in space craft in relation to long-duration space expeditions on the International Space Station (ISS) or to the moon and Mars in the future. Environmental monitoring data from the space shuttle, the Mir, and the ISS have already shown that microorganisms isolated from air and on inner surfaces of space craft were generally carried by crew members. The Japanese Experiment Module (JEM) "KIBO" was attached to the ISS and started its operation from 2008. It is an invaluable opportunity to begin the survey of the transition of microbiota, particularly fungal biota, in JEM from "brand-new" to "well-used" condition at various periods. Therefore, we are preparing the on-board analyzing systems for microbiota in air and on inner surfaces of ISS/JEM and normal microbiota of the astronauts themselves. In this paper, we introduce the current status and future plans on fungal research on ISS/JEM to protect flight crew members and flight hardware from potentially hazardous microorganisms from the environmental and biomedical aspects of Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).