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Project Reports

• Planetary Biology, Evolution, and Intelligence

  The results of a two and a half day workshop on the topic of the Habitability of Planets Orbiting M Stars was published recently. Thirty scientists from nineteen institutions in the US and UK participated. Thirteen of the participants were from six other NAI Teams

  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 7.2

• Genome-Genome Integration: Symbiosis, Genetic Assimilation, and Evolutionary Innovation

  Using insect-associated bacteria as model systems, we are exploring the genomic and functional basis of endosymbiotic associations in which prokaryotes replicate within multicellular hosts. This project has important implications for understanding genome-genome interactions among disparate life forms, the evolution of complex life, and the molecular forces that shape beneficial and parasitic associations in endosymbionts

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 4.2 5.1 5.2 6.2

• Project 3. Prebiotic Chemical and Isotopic Evolution on Earth

   

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 3.1 4.1 4.2 7.1

• Characterizing the Mineral Phases in Placozoans

  A very primitive animal group, the Placozoans (Fig. 1), contain a mineral phase within their structures. It is important to characterize this mineral to discern its function, e.g. waste product, defensive shell material.

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 4.2

• Genomic Record of the Earth’s Early Biosphere (Hedges)

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 4.1 4.2 4.3

• Project 6. Molecular and Isotopic Biosignatures

  Differences in carbon isotope ratios of co-occurring dolomite, carbonate fluorapatite, and organic matter in Paleoproterozoic stromatolitic phosphorites from the Aravalli Supergroup, India, suggest elevated primary productivity during sedimentation. Postdoctoral Fellow Dominic Papineau’s research provides a basis for the examination of other Paleoproterozoic phosphorites and a contribution to the identification of biosignatures in phosphatic sediments.

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1 3.1 4.1 4.2 5.3 6.1 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

• Project 7. Astrobiotechnology

  Co-Investigator Andrew 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. This year has been a milestone in the use of this technology in space with involvement in two missions, one to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard the STS 116 shuttle launch, the other a Biopan low earth orbit exposure mission that will launch in September.

  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: 3.4 4.1 4.2 5.1 5.2 5.3 6.1 6.2 7.1

• Origin of Multicellularity and Complex Land-Based Ecosystem

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 4.2 5.2

• Re-Tracing Steps Towards a Habitable World: The Biogeochemical Evolution of Sulfur on the Early Earth.

  In the last year, we have reported work on the origin of the crust from analysis of rare isotopes in Hadean zircons from Western Australia, established the ages of the oldest and best preserved sediments in Canada at Inukjuak (Quebec) and completed our analysis of multiple sulfur isotopes from the transition from an oxygen-poor to oxygen-rich surface across the Paleoproterozoic.

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1.1 4.1 4.2 5.1 5.2 6.1