2006 Annual Science Report
Astrobiology Roadmap Objective 4.2 Reports Reporting | JUL 2005 – JUN 2006
Roadmap Objective 4.2—Foundations of complex life
Project Reports
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Project 6. Molecular and Isotopic Biosignatures
Co-Investigator Steele and Postdoctoral Fellow Marc Fries used the new WiTec Raman imaging system to begin the examination of in situ carbon formation in a variety of samples, including Precambrian rocks and samples from a Mars analog site in Svalbard.
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1 3.1 4.1 4.2 5.3 6.1 6.2 7.1 7.2 -
Bacterial Tubulin and the Evolution of the Eukaryotic Cell; Sea Ice Bacteria
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 4.1 4.2 5.3 -
Planetary Biology, Evolution, and Intelligence
Chris Chyba, Cynthia Phillips, Kevin Hand- The project has two components. The first, an overview of the astrobiological potential of various geological features on Europa, is proceeding well — we are continuing the study of various proposed formation mechanisms for different feature types such as ridges, bands, and chaotic terrain.
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1.1 1.2 2.1 2.2 3.1 3.2 4.1 4.2 5.1 5.2 5.3 6.1 6.2 7.1 -
Building a Habitable Planet: The Geological Record
Research continued in the following 6 areas: late Archean — early Paleoproterozoic hydrocarbon biomarker molecules, Archean sulfur isotopes and sulfur cycling, metamorphism of early Archean biosignatures, nutrient availability (N, P) in Precambrian oceans, paleobarometry of the Archean atmosphere and diamond drilling of astrobiologically significant Archean and early Proterozoic sedimentary horizons in the Pilbara Craton of Australia. Field-work was conducted on early Archean supracrustal rocks of the Fortescue, Warrawoona and Coonterunah Groups in the Pilbara Craton, Australia and the Isua Supracrustal Belt, Greenland.
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 4.1 4.2 7.1 -
Ocean Surfaces on Snowball Earth
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 4.2 -
Laser Fluorometry for Remote Detection of Oxygenic Phototrophs on Earth And, Potentially, on Mars.
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 3.3 4.2 5.1 5.3 -
Permian-Triassic Extinction Scientific Drilling Project
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 4.1 4.2 5.2 5.3 -
Identifying Microbial Life at Crustal Rock-Water Interfaces
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 4.1 4.2 5.2 5.3 6.1 7.1 -
Project 3. Prebiotic Chemical and Isotopic Evolution on Earth
In the past year Doctoral Student David Johnston and Co-I Farquhar determined for the first time the different types of isotopic signatures produced by different sulfur metabolisms. including sulfate-reducing bacteria, sulfite-disproportionating bacteria, and sulfur-disproportionating bacteria. These observations permitted calibration of the first global sulfur isotope models.
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 3.1 4.1 4.2 7.1 -
Leigh Project
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 3.2 3.3 4.1 4.2 5.1 5.2 5.3 6.1 -
Origin of Multicellularity and Complex Land-Based Ecosystem
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 3.4 4.1 4.2 5.2 -
Origins and Signatures of Biogenic Hydrocarbons – Controls on the Transition From Abiogenic Geochemistry to Biotic Systems in the Deep Subsurface and Identification of Signature for Life
Studies of deep subsurface, ecosystems hosted by ancient groundwater are directly relevant to the exploration for extant life in the subsurface of Mars. Laboratory investigations focus on determining the types of prebiotic compounds that form in the subsurface and assessing whether life itself could have been spawned beneath a planet’s surface. Field investigations focus on deep subsurface groundwater sampled at commercial mines in South African and Canadian Archaean rocks.
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1.1 2.1 3.1 4.1 4.2 6.1 7.1 7.2 -
Oxygen Metabolism and Oxidatie Stress in Anaerobic Microorganisms (Ferry)
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 3.3 4.1 4.2 5.1 6.1 -
The Virtual Planetary Laboratory – The Life Modules
Field research on the freshwater bacteria of Cuatro Cienegas, Mexico (Siefert). These communities are good proxies for early earth type bacterially-dominated systems. To understand the community dynamics that lead to microbialite (general term for structures produced by microbial precipitation) the metagenomes of two microbialites, from two separate regions of the system were performed using 454 sequencing technology.
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 4.1 4.2 5.3 6.1 6.2 7.1 7.2 -
Project 7. Astrobiotechnology
Co-Investigator Steele and colleagues have continued to develop the Modular Assays for Solar System Exploration (MASSE) concept, which uses microfluidic technology to incubate a DNA or protein microarray.
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1 2.2 3.1 3.2 4.2 5.3 6.2 7.1 -
Experimental Study of Radiolytic Oxidation of Pyrite: Implications for Mars-Relevant Crustal Processes
In subsurface environments, radiolysis can produce gradients of both electron acceptors and electron donors that are possible sources of metabolic energy [2]. Radiation-induced chemical reactions have particular significance in geologic environments where molecular oxygen derived from the atmosphere is a negligible input.
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 3.3 4.1 4.2 5.1 5.2 5.3 6.1 7.2 -
Genome-Genome Integration: Symbiosis, Genetic Assimilation, and Evolutionary Innovation
The broad goal of this project is to clarify genetic changes that mediate the establishment and diversification of genome-genome interactions. Using insect-associated endosymbionts as model systems, we are examining the molecular and evolutionary forces that shape associations between bacteria and eukaryotic hosts.
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 4.2 5.1 5.2 -
Relationship Between Hydrogeology and Microbiology at Active Springs
We are currently investigating a sulfur spring system in a zone of high deformation in the central coast range of California. This system presents opportunities to study multiple, sustained groundwater discharge sites with environmental gradients affecting extant microbial communities.
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1.1 2.1 4.2 5.2 7.1 -
Molecular Survey of Microbial Diversity in Hypersaline Ecosystems
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 3.1 3.2 3.4 4.1 4.2 5.1 5.2 5.3 6.1 -
Re-Tracing Steps Towards a Habitable World: The Biogeochemical Evolution of Sulfur on the Early Earth.
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1.1 4.1 4.2 5.3 7.1 -
Characterizing the Mineral Phases in Placozoans
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 3.4 4.2 -
Genomic Record of the Earth’s Early Biosphere (Hedges)
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 4.1 4.2 -
Search for Impacts at Extinction Boundaries Using 3He
Earlier in this grant we (PI’s Ward and Farley and UW graduate student Garrison) completed a study (Farley et al. 2005) of the Permian/Triassic Boundary at Opal Creek, Canada, and showed that a) there is no evidence for any extraterrestrial 3He at this boundary, and b) the absence of extraterrestrial 3He is fully expected for sections (like this one) that have been evenly mildly metamorphosed.
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 4.2 4.3 6.1 -
Impacts and Extinction
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 4.2 4.3 6.1 -
Evolution of a Habitable Planet (Kump)
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1.1 4.1 4.2 4.3 5.2 6.1 -
The Evolution of Intelligence Under Environmental Change
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 4.2 -
Placozoa and the Emergence of Animal Life
This is a new project on the poorly-studied animal phylum Placozoa, which contains only a single described species Trichoplax adhaerens. This is perhaps the simplest free-living animal known, in terms of total described cell types (4), small genome size (50 Mbp) and lack of organs, tissues, obvious sensory systems, or symmetry.
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 4.2