ASGSB 1999 Annual Meeting Abstracts

COMPARISON OF ANTIBIOTIC RESISTANCE CAPABILIITES OF BACTERIA GROWN ON THE SLOW-ROTATING CLINOSTAT, THE FAST ROTATING CLINOSTAT, AND SPACE STATION MIR. M.A. Juergensmeyer¹ and E.A. Juergensmeyer ². ¹Microbiology Department, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT. ²Biology Department, Judson College, Elgin, IL

Clinorotation is considered by many to be an appropriate control for spaceflight experiments. A variety of clinostat styles are available- slow-rotating clinostats, fast-rotating clinostats, and rotating bioreactors. While all of these devices have been used as controls for spaceflight experiments, their ability to simulate the microgravity environment is the subject of much debate. We have previously flown four species of bacteria for four months on the Space Station MIR, and examined the changes in their response to antibiotics induced by spaceflight conditions. In the interest of continuing this research on the ground, we have repeated these experiments on the slow-rotating clinostat and the fast-rotating clinostat. A comparison of clinorotated cultures and spaceflown cultures indicates that clinorotation frequently does not induce the same change in response to antibiotics seen after spaceflight.

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