Phages and bacteria accumulate distinctive mutations aboard the International Space Station

Originally published by Public Library of Science on January 13, 2026

Edited by Sadie Harley, reviewed by Robert Egan

Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

In a new study, terrestrial bacteria-infecting viruses were still able to infect their E. coli hosts in near-weightless "microgravity" conditions aboard the International Space Station, but the dynamics of virus-bacteria interactions differed from those observed on Earth. Phil Huss of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and colleagues present the findings in the open-access journal PLOS Biology.

Interactions between phages—viruses that infect bacteria—and their hosts play an integral role in microbial ecosystems. Often described as being in an evolutionary "arms race," bacteria can evolve defenses against phages, while phages develop new ways to thwart defenses.

While virus-bacteria interactions have been studied extensively on Earth, microgravity conditions alter bacterial physiology and the physics of virus-bacteria collisions, disrupting typical interactions.

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