Microbes in the Arctic persist under the same conditions that life might face on Mars
Scientists believe that a “detailed template” for alien life on Mars could be found in one of the coldest regions on Earth.
The oxygen-free environment in the Canadian High Arctic shares some key features with the Red Planet, such as widespread salt deposits and possible sources of cold water. This could be instrumental in showing researchers which extraterrestrials they might find.
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Researchers from McGill University have found never-before-identified microbes beneath permafrost – the permanently frozen layer of soil, gravel and sand bound together by ice beneath the Earth’s surface.
What’s more, these organisms can survive by eating and breathing simple inorganic compounds such as those detected on Mars (methane, sulfide, sulfate, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide).
“It took several years of studying the sediment before we could successfully detect active microbial communities,” says Elisse Magnuson, lead author of the study published in ISME J.
“The salinity of the environment interferes with both the extraction and sequencing of microbes, so it was a very satisfying experience to be able to find evidence of active microbial communities.”
By isolating DNA from a microbial community found at Lost Hammer Spring in the Arctic, the researchers were able to reconstruct the genomes of 110 microorganisms, many of which had never been seen before.
This gave scientists a basis for determining how these organisms could survive in this extreme environment. “The microbes we found and identified at Lost Hammer Spring are surprising because, unlike other microorganisms, they don’t depend on organic matter or oxygen to live,” said Lyle Whyte of McGill’s Faculty of Natural Resource Sciences.
“Instead, they survive by eating and breathing simple inorganic compounds like methane, sulfides, sulfate, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide, all of which are also present on Mars. They can also trap carbon dioxide and nitrogen gases in the atmosphere. All of this makes microbes extremely well adapted to survive and thrive in very extreme environments on Earth and beyond.”
Summarized from https://www.independent.co.uk/space.