Scientists have performed laboratory evolution experiments in order to test the limits to which bacteria can be forced to adapt in order to survive. The results provide new details about the molecular mechanisms that bacteria use to perform essential life functions in environmental extremes on Earth. Such experiments are important in determining how life as we know it might persist on other worlds in the Solar System.

The study, “Experimental Evolution to Explore Adaptation of Terrestrial Bacteria to the Martian Environment,” was published in the journal Molecular Mechanisms of Microbial Evolution. The study was published as part of the Grand Challenges in Biology and Biotechnology book series (GCBB). The work was supported by NASA Astrobiology through the Exobiology Program.