The Bacterium that ‘Played Dead’ to Survive

Written by Blain Melaku

Bacteria can be found in every corner of planet Earth. Certain bacteria, known as extremophiles, can even survive the harshest of conditions: polar regions, hydrothermal vents, volcanoes, you name it! But one rare strain of bacteria has continued to push these boundaries, surviving in spaces initially thought to be incapable for the microbiome to persist: space.

This mysterious, berry-shaped bacterium was coined with the name Tersicoccus phoenicis. To break down this name, its genus Tersicoccus derives from the Latin word “tersi” meaning “clean,” and “coccus” meaning “berry” in Greek. The second half, “phoenicis” or “phoenix,” cleverly references the spacecraft cleaning room it was first discovered in at the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility in Florida, USA, then later, the Herschel’s Space Observatory’s clean room in French Guiana.

While it was first found in these areas, scientists hypothesize that the sporeless bacteria could also survive in natural environments with less nutrients, or even on long-term space missions.

According to the research of William Widger, Madhan Tirumala, Sahar Ali and George E. Fox of Houston University, T. phoenicis avoided detection by entering a state of dormancy. Dormancy, in the context of bacteria, occurs when a bacteria enters a “temporary, adaptive state of reduced metabolic activity” (Mcdonald, 2024). This allows bacteria like T. phoenicis to stop growing, which conserves energy that can go towards surviving through the harsh sterilization methods used in these types of spacecraft assembly rooms.

These scientists confirmed that T. phoenicis remained dormant, or in other words, ‘played dead’ to survive, by adding a “resuscitation-promoting factor — a common protein found in actinobacteria” (Schalfer, 2025) — another type of bacteria which can also be ‘awakened’ from dormancy — to the cells of T. phoenicis.

By researching the unique T. phoenicis, we can learn to control the presence of more common pathogenic bacteria in hospitals and learn about better contamination control in space travel. A primary example of this can be seen in the strain causing tuberculosis, which becomes challenging to detect, diagnose, and track drug tolerance in affected patients. Ultimately, the study of T. phoenicis can help reveal how the greater community of pathogens undergo dormancy to survive undetected.

References:

1. The bacteria that won’t wake up: NASA discovers new bacteria “playing dead.” (2025, December 2). Ufl.edu. https://news.ufl.edu/2025/12/space-bacteria/
2. Schafler, K. (2025, October 8). University of Houston Scientists Learn that Rare Bacterium “Plays Dead” to Survive. Uh.edu; University of Houston. https://www.uh.edu/news-events/stories/2025/october/10082025-dormant-spacecraft-clean-room-bacteria.php
3. McDonald, M. D., Owusu-Ansah, C., Ellenbogen, J., Malone, Z. D., Ricketts, M. P., Frolking, S., Ernakovich, J. G., Ibba, M., Bagby, S. C., & Weissman, J. L. (2023). What is microbial dormancy? Trends in Microbiology, 32(2). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tim.2023.08.006
4. Salina, E. G., & Makarov, V. (2022). Mycobacterium tuberculosis Dormancy: How to Fight a Hidden Danger. Microorganisms, 10(12), 2334. https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms10122334