Trichoderma and Mycorrhizal Fungi Weighed for Regolith Farming on the Moon and Mars
A review published on 17 April 2026 in Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences assesses which beneficial fungi could help turn lunar and Martian regolith into a medium for growing crops.
The authors draw on Earth-based evidence that fungi dissolve metal-bearing minerals, solubilise phosphate, chelate iron and support plant stress tolerance, and hypothesise that these mechanisms may work similarly in regolith.
Most of the evidence comes from terrestrial soils or regolith simulants, so the review frames fungi as priorities for testing rather than proven tools for space agriculture.
Fungi in Regolith-Based Agriculture
A review in Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences examines which beneficial fungi could help turn lunar and Martian regolith into a medium for growing crops. The authors are Jéssica Carneiro Oliveira and Camila Maistro Patreze of the Federal University of the State of Rio de Janeiro, Rafael Loureiro of Winston-Salem State University and Andrew Palmer of the Florida Institute of Technology. They treat fungi as candidate tools for in situ resource utilisation (ISRU), meaning the use of materials found on site rather than shipped from Earth.
The paper is a synthesis of existing literature, not a new experiment. Its central argument is a hypothesis: the mechanisms fungi use on Earth may work in a similar way in regolith.
A Substrate Without Life
Regolith is unconsolidated mineral material. Unlike even poor terrestrial soil, it has no microbiota. The authors list an alkaline pH, toxic elements including aluminium, manganese and perchlorates, and scarce nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium among the obstacles. Many nutrients are present but locked in mineral forms plants struggle to use. Citing Fackrell and colleagues (2024), the review notes that iron in highland lunar, lunar sea and Martian regolith runs at roughly 600, 1,500 and 1,240 times what most crops generally tolerate.
Importing soil is costly. The authors cite an estimated US$20,000 per kilogram for cargo to the International Space Station under NASA's 2019 interim pricing policy, since updated, as an illustration of the burden of launch mass.
Plants can grow in regolith, but not unaided. Wamelink and colleagues (2014) grew crops including tomato, rye and carrot in a simulant. Paul and colleagues (2022) grew Arabidopsis thaliana in real lunar regolith with added nutrient solutions, yet the plants grew slowly and showed a severe stress phenotype.
What the Fungal Evidence Shows
The review cites several lines of work. Figueira and colleagues (2025) used Penicillium simplicissimum to bioleach the lunar simulant EAC-1A under reduced gravity. Over two weeks the process recovered an average of 10 ± 3 g/L of metal dust from the leachate, including aluminium, iron, magnesium and calcium. Vezzola and colleagues (2023) found that Aspergillus tubingensis produced organic acids, chiefly oxalic acid, within five days, sharply lowering the pH of its culture medium in a Martian simulant.
Fungi in the genera Penicillium and Aspergillus are also known to solubilise phosphate. The authors acknowledge that research specific to lunar or Martian regolith is limited and that their case rests on behaviour in terrestrial soils.
On perchlorates, Heinz and colleagues (2020) reported that the yeast Debaryomyces hansenii tolerated 2.4 M sodium perchlorate in the laboratory, without regolith. Perchlorate has been measured in Martian soil at the Phoenix landing site at 0.4 to 0.6 per cent by weight. The extremophile Cryomyces antarcticus, which produces protective melanin, is also noted for resilience to radiation, a theme explored in earlier coverage of radiation-resistant fungi. The authors add that space biomining and bioremediation are still at an early stage.
Mycorrhizal Partners and Station Isolates
The review gives particular attention to arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), which form symbiotic partnerships with plant roots. On Earth they improve iron uptake, ease oxidative stress and aggregate soil through a glycoprotein called glomalin.
Kozyrovska and colleagues (2004) reported that marigolds given a consortium including the mycorrhizal fungus Glomus flowered after 54 days in a substrate resembling lunar rock, while uninoculated controls died after three to four weeks. A preprint by Atkin and Oliveira Pedro dos Santos (2024) combined AMF and vermicompost in lunar simulant; chickpeas flowered, produced seeds and showed elevated chlorophyll, which the authors read as suggesting stress mitigation.
The review also surveys fungi isolated from the International Space Station, including Trichoderma, Penicillium and Aspergillus. Spores of Trichoderma longibrachiatum were exposed in low-Earth orbit for almost two years, and about 30 per cent survived in vacuum when shielded from radiation (Neuberger and colleagues, 2015). No Glomeromycota, the AMF group, have been found on the station. The authors stress that their survey is meant to set testing priorities, not to claim an inherent advantage for station isolates.
Biosafety and Open Questions
Some of the most useful genera include pathogenic strains. Aspergillus fumigatus can cause severe infections in immunocompromised people, and Pfordt and colleagues (2025) found that several Trichoderma species were pathogenic in maize cobs, with disease severity reaching 92 per cent. Seed-borne fungi are also hard to eliminate, so unintended introductions into regolith systems should be expected.
The authors identify four gaps: growth studies under microgravity, cosmic radiation and extreme temperatures; standardised protocols for testing symbiosis in high-fidelity simulants; biosafety evaluation; and inoculation methods suited to closed systems. They note a lack of experimental evidence combining fungi, regolith-based substrates and plants under space-relevant conditions, and say validation should follow crops from germination to harvest across generations.
The authors also suggest the work could inform recovery of degraded soils on Earth, as with other fungal approaches to contaminated land. For now, the review maps where evidence exists and where it does not.
