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Project Reports

• Understanding Mars Subsurface Methane Hydrates and Brines and Potentials for Microbial Habitats

  The sub-permafrost zone of Mars is acknowledged as having the greatest potential for habitability because water is readily available. CH₄ leakage from the sub-permafrost zone would occur wherever the permafrost zone has been breached by recent fracturing due to impacts or by geothermal heating.

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 4.1 4.3 5.3 6.1 6.2

• 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

• 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

• Understanding How Psychrobacter Sp. 273-4 Is Able to Live in Siberian Permafrost

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 5.2 5.3

• Bacterial Tubulin and the Evolution of the Eukaryotic Cell; Sea Ice Bacteria

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 4.1 4.2 5.3

• Evolution of a Habitable Planet (Arthur)

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 4.1 5.3 6.1

• 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

• Design and Assembly of a Cavity-Ring Down Spectrometer for Determination of Concentration and Isotopic Composition of Methane in Gases

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1 3.2 3.3 4.1 5.2 5.3 6.2 7.1 7.2

• Laser Fluorometry for Remote Detection of Oxygenic Phototrophs on Earth And, Potentially, on Mars.

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 3.3 4.2 5.1 5.3

• Proteomes of Permafrost Bacteria

  It is crucial to examine the physiological processes of psychrophiles at temperatures below 4°C to facilitate extrapolation of laboratory results to in situ activity

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 5.3 6.2

• 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

• 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

• Interplanetary Pioneers

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 5.3 6.2

• Permian-Triassic Extinction Scientific Drilling Project

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 4.1 4.2 5.2 5.3

• 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

• The Evolution and Diversity of Ancient CO2-fixation Pathways in Anaerobic and Extremophilic Microorganisms: Clues to the Early Evolution of Life on Earth

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 4.1 5.3 6.1 7.1

• Identifying Microbial Life at Crustal Rock-Water Interfaces

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 4.1 4.2 5.2 5.3 6.1 7.1

• Ecosystem to Biosphere Modeling

  The newly completed methanogenesis component of the model MBGC (MicrobialBioGeoChemistry) was used to examine the effects of competition between methanogens and sulfate-reducing bacteria on metabolism and gas flux in the microbial mat.

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 4.1 5.3 6.1 7.2

• 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

• Examination of the Microbial Diversity Found in Ice Cores (Brenchley)

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1 5.1 5.2 5.3 6.1 6.2

• 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

• 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

• 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

• Leigh Project

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 3.2 3.3 4.1 4.2 5.1 5.2 5.3 6.1

• 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

• 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

• Genomics of the Permafrost Isolate Exigubacterium Sibiricum

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 5.1 5.3

• 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

• From Proto-Metabolism to the RNA World

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 3.1 3.2 5.3

• 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 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

• Geomicrobiology of Neutrophilic Iron-Oxidizing Bacteria at Loihi Seamount

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 5.1 5.2 5.3 6.1

• Genomes of Permafrost Bacteria: Psychrobacter Isolates

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• Analysis Software for in Situ Voltammetry

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 5.3

• 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

• Ecology of a Hawaiian Lava Cave Microbial Mat

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 4.1 5.1 5.2 5.3 6.2

• Iceland Subglacial Biology Exploration (ISBOX)

  Subglacial lakes are the focus of studies of life in extreme environments because they may resemble habitats on Mars and icy satellites in the outer solar system. ISBOX II succeeded in drilling through 300 meters of glacial ice to sample a subglacial lake beneath the Vatnajökull glacier in Iceland, in June 2006.

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1 2.2 5.3 6.2 7.1

• Water-Rock Chemistry and Habitats for Life

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 5.3