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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

• Biosignatures in Chemosynthetic and Photosynthetic Systems

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1 4.1 5.1 5.2 6.1 7.1 7.2

• Iron Oxidation – Shaping the Past and Present Environments

   

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 4.1 5.2 5.3 6.1 7.2

• Construction of a Borehole Apparatus for Sampling of Fluids and Microbes in Sub-Permafrost Groundwater, Nunavut Territory, Canada

  As part of the Indiana-Princeton-Tennessee Astrobiology Initiative, investigating physical and chemical limitations of life on earth with potential application for life-detecting strategies on Mars, Barry Freifeld at the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab designed and constructed a borehole sampling device intended for installation at the High Lake project site (67°22’N, 110°50’W). This device will allow for long-term sampling of geofluids (gas and water) and microbes in an extreme groundwater environment.

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1 2.2 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

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

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1 5.1 5.2 5.3 6.1 6.2 7.1

• Drilling a Borehole for Sampling of Gases, Water, and Microbes in Sub-Permafrost Groundwater at High Lake, Nunavut Territory, Canada

   

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1 2.2 5.1 5.2 5.3 6.1 6.2

• Microbial Diversity and Population Structure Studies in the Rio Tinto

   

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 5.1 5.2

• Identifying Microbial Life at Crustal Rock-Water Interfaces

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 4.1 5.2 5.3 6.1 7.1

• Microbial Diversity in the Deep Ocean

  Microbial life exerts a profound influence on habitability of Earth where it drives all of the major biogeographical transformations including the fixation of carbon and production of atmospheric gases.

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 5.1 5.2 5.3 6.1

• Evolution of Abiotic Environments to Ecosystems

  Field work in 2006-2007 included trips to the high Arctic and to the Precambrian Canadian Shield. Study sites were selected on the basis of temperature and contrasting levels of hydrogen. Study sites included environments impacted by permafrost and environments at latitudes south of persistent permafrost. The level of free hydrogen gas is temperature-dependent and appears to be an important controlling factor on microbial processes.

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1 2.2 3.1 3.2 3.3 5.1 5.2 5.3 6.1 6.2 7.1 7.2

• Hydrology and Microbiology of Active Springs

  Sulfur springs have traditionally provided an excellent framework within which to study microbial communities in the contexts of their geochemical environments. We have investigated a sulfur spring network that has multiple discharge sites along a fault, focusing on two sites (MS4 and MS11) that were chosen based on flow rate, chemistry, and the presence of eye-visible white biofilms.

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1 5.2 5.3 7.2

• 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

• Retentostat Studies of Subsurface Sulfate Reducing Bacterium

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 5.1 5.2 5.3 6.1 6.2 7.1 7.2

• Origin of Multicellularity and Complex Land-Based Ecosystem

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 4.2 5.2

• Iron and Sulfur-Based Biospheres and Their Biosignatures

  This collaborative project involves many members of the UC Berkeley-led NAI team as well as members of other teams and institutions internationally.

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1 4.1 5.1 5.2 5.3 7.2

• Philosophical Issues in Astrobiology

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 3.2 3.4 4.1 5.1 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

• Survival Capability of a Cold-Loving Microbe in a Mars Simulation Chamber

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1 2.2 5.1 5.2 5.3 7.1

• Geomicrobiology of Neutrophilic Iron-Oxidizing Bacteria at Loihi Seamount

  Loihi Seamount is a submarine, active volcano located on the SE flanks of the Big Island of Hawaii, and it is considered to be the youngest volcano in the Hawaiian chain.

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 5.1 5.2 5.3 6.1

• Subseafloor Basement (Basalt) Biosphere Studies

  Low temperature hydrothermal ocean fluids (<100°C), circulate everywhere within the porous and permeable volcanic rocks of the upper ocean basement, providing temperatures and chemical gradients that form plausible habitats for a variety of microbial communities. However, few direct tests have been carried out in buried basement rocks or fluids.

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1.1 3.3 4.1 5.1 5.2 5.3 6.1 6.2