A habitat for psychrophiles in deep Antarctic ice

Microbes, some of which may be viable, have been found in ice cores drilled at Vostok Station at depths down to ≈3,600 m, close to the surface of the huge subglacial Lake Vostok. Two types of ice have been found. The upper 3,500 m comprises glacial ice containing traces of nutrients of aeolian origi...

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Main Author: Price, P. Buford
Format: Text
Language:English
Published: The National Academy of Sciences 2000
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC15584
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10655516
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spelling ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:15584 2023-05-15T13:37:56+02:00 A habitat for psychrophiles in deep Antarctic ice Price, P. Buford 2000-02-01 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC15584 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10655516 en eng The National Academy of Sciences http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC15584 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10655516 Copyright © 2000, The National Academy of Sciences Physical Sciences Text 2000 ftpubmed 2013-08-29T06:45:52Z Microbes, some of which may be viable, have been found in ice cores drilled at Vostok Station at depths down to ≈3,600 m, close to the surface of the huge subglacial Lake Vostok. Two types of ice have been found. The upper 3,500 m comprises glacial ice containing traces of nutrients of aeolian origin including sulfuric acid, nitric acid, methanosulfonic acid (MSA), formic acid, sea salts, and mineral grains. Ice below ≈3,500 m comprises refrozen water from Lake Vostok, accreted to the bottom of the glacial ice. Nutrients in the accretion ice include salts and dissolved organic carbon. There is great interest in searching for living microbes and especially for new species in deepest Antarctic ice. I propose a habitat consisting of interconnected liquid veins along three-grain boundaries in ice in which psychrophilic bacteria can move and obtain energy and carbon from ions in solution. In the accretion ice, with an age of a few 104 years and a temperature a few degrees below freezing, the carbon and energy sources in the veins can maintain significant numbers of cells per cubic centimeter that are metabolizing but not multiplying. In the 4 × 105-year-old colder glacial ice, at least 1 cell per cm3 in acid veins can be maintained. With fluorescence microscopy tuned to detect NADH in live organisms, motile bacteria could be detected by direct scanning of the veins in ice samples. Text Antarc* Antarctic PubMed Central (PMC) Antarctic Lake Vostok ENVELOPE(106.000,106.000,-77.500,-77.500) Vostok Station ENVELOPE(106.837,106.837,-78.464,-78.464)
institution Open Polar
collection PubMed Central (PMC)
op_collection_id ftpubmed
language English
topic Physical Sciences
spellingShingle Physical Sciences
Price, P. Buford
A habitat for psychrophiles in deep Antarctic ice
topic_facet Physical Sciences
description Microbes, some of which may be viable, have been found in ice cores drilled at Vostok Station at depths down to ≈3,600 m, close to the surface of the huge subglacial Lake Vostok. Two types of ice have been found. The upper 3,500 m comprises glacial ice containing traces of nutrients of aeolian origin including sulfuric acid, nitric acid, methanosulfonic acid (MSA), formic acid, sea salts, and mineral grains. Ice below ≈3,500 m comprises refrozen water from Lake Vostok, accreted to the bottom of the glacial ice. Nutrients in the accretion ice include salts and dissolved organic carbon. There is great interest in searching for living microbes and especially for new species in deepest Antarctic ice. I propose a habitat consisting of interconnected liquid veins along three-grain boundaries in ice in which psychrophilic bacteria can move and obtain energy and carbon from ions in solution. In the accretion ice, with an age of a few 104 years and a temperature a few degrees below freezing, the carbon and energy sources in the veins can maintain significant numbers of cells per cubic centimeter that are metabolizing but not multiplying. In the 4 × 105-year-old colder glacial ice, at least 1 cell per cm3 in acid veins can be maintained. With fluorescence microscopy tuned to detect NADH in live organisms, motile bacteria could be detected by direct scanning of the veins in ice samples.
format Text
author Price, P. Buford
author_facet Price, P. Buford
author_sort Price, P. Buford
title A habitat for psychrophiles in deep Antarctic ice
title_short A habitat for psychrophiles in deep Antarctic ice
title_full A habitat for psychrophiles in deep Antarctic ice
title_fullStr A habitat for psychrophiles in deep Antarctic ice
title_full_unstemmed A habitat for psychrophiles in deep Antarctic ice
title_sort habitat for psychrophiles in deep antarctic ice
publisher The National Academy of Sciences
publishDate 2000
url http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC15584
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10655516
long_lat ENVELOPE(106.000,106.000,-77.500,-77.500)
ENVELOPE(106.837,106.837,-78.464,-78.464)
geographic Antarctic
Lake Vostok
Vostok Station
geographic_facet Antarctic
Lake Vostok
Vostok Station
genre Antarc*
Antarctic
genre_facet Antarc*
Antarctic
op_relation http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC15584
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10655516
op_rights Copyright © 2000, The National Academy of Sciences
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