Fingerprinting molecular and isotopic biosignatures on different hydrothermal scenarios of Iceland, an acidic and sulfur-rich Mars analog
Detecting signs of potential extant/extinct life on Mars is challenging because the presence of organics on that planet is expected to be very low and most likely linked to radiation-protected refugia and/or preservative strategies (e.g., organo-mineral complexes). With scarcity of organics, account...
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:7712778 2023-05-15T16:50:43+02:00 Fingerprinting molecular and isotopic biosignatures on different hydrothermal scenarios of Iceland, an acidic and sulfur-rich Mars analog Sánchez-García, Laura Carrizo, Daniel Molina, Antonio Muñoz-Iglesias, Victoria Lezcano, María Ángeles Fernández-Sampedro, Maite Parro, Victor Prieto-Ballesteros, Olga 2020-12-03 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7712778/ https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-78240-2 en eng Nature Publishing Group UK http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7712778/ http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-78240-2 © The Author(s) 2020 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. CC-BY Sci Rep Article Text 2020 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-78240-2 2020-12-06T02:17:07Z Detecting signs of potential extant/extinct life on Mars is challenging because the presence of organics on that planet is expected to be very low and most likely linked to radiation-protected refugia and/or preservative strategies (e.g., organo-mineral complexes). With scarcity of organics, accounting for biomineralization and potential relationships between biomarkers, mineralogy, and geochemistry is key in the search for extraterrestrial life. Here we explored microbial fingerprints and their associated mineralogy in Icelandic hydrothermal systems analog to Mars (i.e., high sulfur content, or amorphous silica), to identify potentially habitable locations on that planet. The mineralogical assemblage of four hydrothermal substrates (hot springs biofilms, mud pots, and steaming and inactive fumaroles) was analyzed concerning the distribution of biomarkers. Molecular and isotopic composition of lipids revealed quantitative and compositional differences apparently impacted by surface geothermal alteration and environmental factors. pH and water showed an influence (i.e., greatest biomass in circumneutral settings with highest supply and turnover of water), whereas temperature conditioned the mineralogy that supported specific microbial metabolisms related with sulfur. Raman spectra suggested the possible coexistence of abiotic and biomediated sources of minerals (i.e., sulfur or hematite). These findings may help to interpret future Raman or GC–MS signals in forthcoming Martian missions. Text Iceland PubMed Central (PMC) Scientific Reports 10 1 |
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Article Sánchez-García, Laura Carrizo, Daniel Molina, Antonio Muñoz-Iglesias, Victoria Lezcano, María Ángeles Fernández-Sampedro, Maite Parro, Victor Prieto-Ballesteros, Olga Fingerprinting molecular and isotopic biosignatures on different hydrothermal scenarios of Iceland, an acidic and sulfur-rich Mars analog |
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Article |
description |
Detecting signs of potential extant/extinct life on Mars is challenging because the presence of organics on that planet is expected to be very low and most likely linked to radiation-protected refugia and/or preservative strategies (e.g., organo-mineral complexes). With scarcity of organics, accounting for biomineralization and potential relationships between biomarkers, mineralogy, and geochemistry is key in the search for extraterrestrial life. Here we explored microbial fingerprints and their associated mineralogy in Icelandic hydrothermal systems analog to Mars (i.e., high sulfur content, or amorphous silica), to identify potentially habitable locations on that planet. The mineralogical assemblage of four hydrothermal substrates (hot springs biofilms, mud pots, and steaming and inactive fumaroles) was analyzed concerning the distribution of biomarkers. Molecular and isotopic composition of lipids revealed quantitative and compositional differences apparently impacted by surface geothermal alteration and environmental factors. pH and water showed an influence (i.e., greatest biomass in circumneutral settings with highest supply and turnover of water), whereas temperature conditioned the mineralogy that supported specific microbial metabolisms related with sulfur. Raman spectra suggested the possible coexistence of abiotic and biomediated sources of minerals (i.e., sulfur or hematite). These findings may help to interpret future Raman or GC–MS signals in forthcoming Martian missions. |
format |
Text |
author |
Sánchez-García, Laura Carrizo, Daniel Molina, Antonio Muñoz-Iglesias, Victoria Lezcano, María Ángeles Fernández-Sampedro, Maite Parro, Victor Prieto-Ballesteros, Olga |
author_facet |
Sánchez-García, Laura Carrizo, Daniel Molina, Antonio Muñoz-Iglesias, Victoria Lezcano, María Ángeles Fernández-Sampedro, Maite Parro, Victor Prieto-Ballesteros, Olga |
author_sort |
Sánchez-García, Laura |
title |
Fingerprinting molecular and isotopic biosignatures on different hydrothermal scenarios of Iceland, an acidic and sulfur-rich Mars analog |
title_short |
Fingerprinting molecular and isotopic biosignatures on different hydrothermal scenarios of Iceland, an acidic and sulfur-rich Mars analog |
title_full |
Fingerprinting molecular and isotopic biosignatures on different hydrothermal scenarios of Iceland, an acidic and sulfur-rich Mars analog |
title_fullStr |
Fingerprinting molecular and isotopic biosignatures on different hydrothermal scenarios of Iceland, an acidic and sulfur-rich Mars analog |
title_full_unstemmed |
Fingerprinting molecular and isotopic biosignatures on different hydrothermal scenarios of Iceland, an acidic and sulfur-rich Mars analog |
title_sort |
fingerprinting molecular and isotopic biosignatures on different hydrothermal scenarios of iceland, an acidic and sulfur-rich mars analog |
publisher |
Nature Publishing Group UK |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7712778/ https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-78240-2 |
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Iceland |
genre_facet |
Iceland |
op_source |
Sci Rep |
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http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7712778/ http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-78240-2 |
op_rights |
© The Author(s) 2020 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
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CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-78240-2 |
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Scientific Reports |
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10 |
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1766040841395109888 |