Mineralization and Preservation of an extremotolerant Bacterium Isolated from an Early Mars Analog Environment

Mineralization and Preservation of an extremotolerant Bacterium Isolated from an Early Mars Analog Environment

The artificial mineralization of a polyresistant bacterial strain isolated from an acidic, oligotrophic lake was carried out to better understand microbial (i) early mineralization and (ii) potential for further fossilisation. Mineralization was conducted in mineral matrixes commonly found on Mars a...

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Published in:Scientific reports Vol. 7; no. 1; pp. 8775 - 14
Main Authors: Gaboyer, F., Le Milbeau, C., Bohmeier, M., Schwendner, P., Vannier, P., Beblo-Vranesevic, K., Rabbow, E., Foucher, F., Gautret, P., Guégan, R., Richard, A., Sauldubois, A., Richmann, P., Perras, A. K., Moissl-Eichinger, C., Cockell, C. S., Rettberg, P., Marteinsson, Monaghan, E., Ehrenfreund, P., Garcia-Descalzo, L., Gomez, F., Malki, M., Amils, R., Cabezas, P., Walter, N., Westall, F.
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 18-08-2017
Nature Publishing Group
Nature Portfolio
Subjects:
14/34
140/125
140/133
631/326/171/1878
704/158/855
704/47/4113
82/16
82/79
Desiccation
Electron microscopy
Gypsum
Humanities and Social Sciences
Immunoassays
Infrared spectroscopy
Mars
Mineralization
multidisciplinary
Oligotrophic lakes
Preservation
Raman spectroscopy
Rocks
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Sciences of the Universe
Silica
Survival
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Summary:The artificial mineralization of a polyresistant bacterial strain isolated from an acidic, oligotrophic lake was carried out to better understand microbial (i) early mineralization and (ii) potential for further fossilisation. Mineralization was conducted in mineral matrixes commonly found on Mars and Early-Earth, silica and gypsum, for 6 months. Samples were analyzed using microbiological (survival rates), morphological (electron microscopy), biochemical (GC-MS, Microarray immunoassay, Rock-Eval) and spectroscopic (EDX, FTIR, RAMAN spectroscopy) methods. We also investigated the impact of physiological status on mineralization and long-term fossilisation by exposing cells or not to Mars-related stresses (desiccation and radiation). Bacterial populations remained viable after 6 months although the kinetics of mineralization and cell-mineral interactions depended on the nature of minerals. Detection of biosignatures strongly depended on analytical methods, successful with FTIR and EDX but not with RAMAN and immunoassays. Neither influence of stress exposure, nor qualitative and quantitative changes of detected molecules were observed as a function of mineralization time and matrix. Rock-Eval analysis suggests that potential for preservation on geological times may be possible only with moderate diagenetic and metamorphic conditions. The implications of our results for microfossil preservation in the geological record of Earth as well as on Mars are discussed.
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ISSN:2045-2322
2045-2322
DOI:10.1038/s41598-017-08929-4