Assessment Of Saccharomyces Cerevisiae Survival Upon Exposure to Transient High Pressure and Temperature in a High-Intensity Shock Tube for Astrobiology (HISTA)

[bio-protocol] Understanding microbial survival under extreme planetary conditions is critical for astrobiology and stress biology.

Several experimental platforms, including radiation, desiccation, and microgravity, have been used to mimic extraterrestrial environments; however, controlled simulation of high-intensity shock waves has not been used to assess microbial survival.

Here, we describe a detailed protocol for shock processing of Saccharomyces cerevisiae using the high-intensity shock tube for astrochemistry (HISTA), which generates high-Mach-number shock waves under inert gas conditions.

Yeast cells are drop-casted onto a metal flange, exposed to transient high-pressure shock waves, and recovered for downstream survival and cellular analyses. Shock intensity can be precisely tuned by adjusting driver pressure, diaphragm thickness, and driven gas pressure.

This protocol provides a platform to investigate microbial adaptation to shock waves. Key features
• Recreates impact-like shock events under controlled laboratory conditions.
• Compatible for performing post-shock analysis through growth assay, fluorescence imaging, and transcriptomic analysis.
• Shock intensity can be adjusted by modifying operational parameters of the shock tube.