2006 Annual Science Report
Astrobiology Roadmap Objective 5.1 Reports Reporting | JUL 2005 – JUN 2006
Roadmap Objective 5.1—Environment-dependent, molecular evolution in microorganisms
Project Reports
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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 -
Microbial Diversity and Population Structure Studies in the Rio Tinto
We have begun analyzing data from a new molecular diversity survey method called SARST-V6 (Serial Analysis of Ribosomal Sequence Tags) applied to the October 2002 samples. With SARST, the PCR products from orthologous hypervariable regions (~100 bp long for the bacterial V6 region) in rRNA genes are ligated together to form large concatemers. Our SARST data are currently only available for bacteria. A total of 10,575 RSTs (ribosomal sequence tags) were BLASTED against the GenBank and RDP Databases
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 3.3 5.1 5.2 -
Indigenous Bacteria of Arctic and Antarctic Permafrost
Our previous studies resulted in the isolation of several strains of Exiguobacterium and Psychrobacter from Siberian permafrost, suggesting that these species are abundant in this environment.
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 5.1 5.3 6.2 -
Iron Oxidation – Shaping the Past and Present Environments
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 4.1 5.1 6.1 7.2 -
Biosignatures in Chemosynthetic and Photosynthetic Systems
During the past year, our team has made strong contributions in research, mission involvement, synergistic community activities, and education & public outreach.
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1 4.1 5.1 5.2 6.1 7.1 7.2 -
Microbial Communities and Activities in the Deep Marine Subsurface
Active archaeal communities. We are beginning to publish the results of our rRNA survey of selected deep subsurface sediments, focusing on active archaeal communities in the subsurface (Biddle et al. 2006, Sørensen and Teske 2006). All previous subsurface community analyses were based on DNA, which included the risk of detecting and analyzing remnant and fossil DNA from inactive or dead cells.
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 5.1 5.3 6.1 6.2 -
Laser Fluorometry for Remote Detection of Oxygenic Phototrophs on Earth And, Potentially, on Mars.
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 3.3 4.2 5.1 5.3 -
Subseafloor Basement (Basalt) Biosphere Studies
Using UHNAI funds in 2004-2005, we began to acquire laboratory equipment and initiate the first environmental electrochemistry research effort at UH, making use of solid-state voltammetric sensors.
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 4.1 5.1 5.2 5.3 6.1 -
Transcriptomes of Permafrost Bacteria
Cold temperatures, low water activity, and low nutrient availability are biological stressors for microbes residing in permafrosts. Psychrobacter arcticus 273-4 was isolated after inhabiting Kolyma permafrosts for 10,000-40,000 yr.
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 5.1 5.3 7.2 -
Rapid Response to Remotely Detected Seafloor Eruptions
May 2006 – Geophysicists aboard R/V Knorr during a recent cruise to the East Pacific Rise at 9° 51’ N suspected that a recent eruption may have occurred during attempted recovery of ocean bottom seismometers (OBS)
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 5.1 5.2 5.3 6.1 -
Synergism, Evolution, and Functional Ecogenomics of Deep-Subsurface Microbial Communities Based on Molecular Analyses
Planktonic microbes in anaerobic fracture water and biofilm microbial communities on aerobic rock surfaces were compared from the deep subsurface of the Witwatersrand Basin, South Africa. A deep-branching clade of nearly identical Firmicutes 16S rDNA sequences (>99% homology) has been identified as the dominant microorganism in fracture water from multiple gold mines of the Witwatersrand Basin, South Africa
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 5.1 5.2 5.3 6.1 -
Adaptation to Salinity in Microbial Communities
Lake Tyrrell, Australia, has been identified as a site with considerable potential as a Mars analog (Benison and Laclair, Astrobiology, 2003). This periodically dry, pink, hypersaline lake (Figure 1) is located in northwestern Victoria, Australia
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1 4.1 5.1 5.2 5.3 6.1 -
Examination of the Microbial Diversity Found in Ice Cores (Brenchley)
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1 5.1 5.2 5.3 6.1 6.2 -
Genomics of the Permafrost Isolate Exigubacterium Sibiricum
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 5.1 5.3 -
Earthbound Microbial and Geological Robotic Based Observations for Mars
After experimenting with robot modules (developed in the previous reporting period), the University of Pennsylvania team has developed new modules better suited to the terrain microbiologists and geologists traversed at the Box Canyon Idaho 2004 field trip. Primarily this involves adding rotational leg modules which allow the traversal of larger obstacles while still allowing access to cluttered environments such as between rocks or weeds
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1 2.2 5.1 5.3 -
Microbial Diversity in the Deep Ocean
The world’s oceans are teeming with microscopic life forms. The evolution of marine microbes over billions of years predicts the composition of microbial communities should be much greater than published estimates of a few thousand distinct kinds of microbes/liter of seawater. By adopting a massively parallel tag sequencing strategy, we explored bacterial communities of deep water masses of the North Atlantic (Figure 1) and diffuse flows associated with the hydrothermal vents of Axial Seamount (Figure 2)
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 5.1 5.2 -
Leigh Project
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 3.2 3.3 4.1 4.2 5.1 5.2 5.3 6.1 -
Microbial and Biogeochemical Characterization of Terrestrial Analogue Sites for Life in the Subsurface of Mars.
Onstott and McGown collected ground water from boreholes intersection fractures at depths of 890 and 1100 meters below the surface at the Lupin gold mine, Nunavat Territories March 2005 using 0.2 μm borosilicate filters and 0.2 μm hollow-fiber filters and running the borehole water through these filters for 2-3 day
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1 2.2 5.1 5.2 5.3 6.1 6.2 7.1 -
Icelandic Subglacial Volcanic Habitats
The Skaftárkatlar Caldera is formed by an active volcano under the ice, located on the Vatnajökull ice cap in Iceland. Through collaboration with Icelandic colleagues, Gaidos and Glazer participated on an expedition to drill through the ice cap and sample the underlying lake waters for geochemical and microbiological analyses.
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 5.1 5.2 5.3 6.1 -
Geomicrobiology of Neutrophilic Iron-Oxidizing Bacteria at Loihi Seamount
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 5.1 5.2 5.3 6.1 -
Oxygen Metabolism and Oxidatie Stress in Anaerobic Microorganisms (Ferry)
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 3.3 4.1 4.2 5.1 6.1 -
Genetic Systems for Psychrobacter
A major goal of our research team is to identify genes that enable bacteria to inhabit the permafrost environment. To accomplish this, need to develop genetic systems to mutagenize and manipulate the genomes of our permafrost isolates.
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 5.1 5.3 6.2 -
Project 5. Life in Extreme Environments
The behavior of H2O under pressure underlies the work of Co-Investigator Hemley and his colleagues in prebiotic chemistry and high-pressure microbiology. Collaborator Yukihiro Yoshimura documented new transformations in ice by X-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy.
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 3.1 5.1 5.3 6.2 -
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 -
Genomes of Permafrost Bacteria: Psychrobacter Isolates
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 5.1 5.3 6.2 -
Laboratory Microbial Simulations (House)
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 3.4 4.1 5.1 5.2 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 -
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 -
Microbial Mat Communities
Our primary research objective is to better understand the origins and adaptive radiation of an ancient and biogeochemically significant assemblage of microorganisms, the sulfate-reducing prokaryotes (SRP).
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 4.1 5.1 5.2 5.3 -
Evolution of Atmospheric O2, Climate, and Biosphere (Ohmoto)
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1.1 2.1 4.1 4.3 5.1 5.2 6.1 7.1 -
Philosophical Issues in Astrobiology
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 3.1 3.2 3.4 4.1 5.1 5.2 -
Analysis Tools for a Proteomic View of Adaptations to Extreme Environments
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 5.1 5.3 -
A Proteomic View of Adaptations to Extreme Environments
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 5.1 5.3 -
Detection of Microbial Differentiation Using High-Resolution Molecular Marker
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 5.1 6.2 -
Ecology of a Hawaiian Lava Cave Microbial Mat
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 4.1 5.1 5.2 5.3 6.2 -
Seafloor Eruptions: Access to Deep Hydrothermal Biosphere
This project is an on-going study of the microbial and geochemical changes associated with seafloor eruptions at mid-ocean ridges. The intrusion of a magma dike into the neovolcanic zone of a mid-ocean ridge is the “quantum” event in the accretion of the upper ocean crust. Such ridge axis diking/eruptive events are episodic perturbations that trigger a sequence of interrelated and rapidly evolving physical, chemical, and biological processes associated with the formation of ocean crust.
ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 4.1 5.1 5.2 6.1