Current Progression: Application of High-Throughput Sequencing Technique in Space Microbiology

Table 1

Comparison of cultural methods and noncultural methods.

	Object	Methods	Advantages	Limitations
Cultural methods	Air; Surface; Water	The air sampler package; Medium contact method; Water testing kits	Ability to monitor microbial populations on orbit	Long analysis period, the existence of unculturable microorganisms, risk of recontamination
Noncultural methods	Air, surface, and water	The fluorescence analyzer; LOCAD-PTS	Fast	Unable to identify microbial species
		Microfluidic PCR	High accuracy, fast	Able to identify known species, unable to identify unknown species
		High-throughput sequencing	Fast, high throughput, and high accuracy	Lack of sequencers on orbit, generally analyzed on the ground