It is exciting to explore the circumstances under which a life may exist on Mars. The team led by the Technical University of Berlin studied the cellular processes that regulate the adaptation of organisms to perchlorates. It might be possible for the organisms to survive on the Red Planet if they could genetically modify their stress response to this salt.
The paper about the study was published in the journal.
The availability of CHNOPS is required for life. The acronym stands for carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorous and sulfur. Liquid water and trace elements are essential. On Mars, energy can be provided by sunlight or chemical processes, carbon can be found through the thin but carbon dioxide-rich atmosphere, and other essential elements can be found on the planet's surface.
The average air pressure on Earth is about 1 bar and the average temperature is below freezing. There is only one way to produce water near the surface of Mars.
A salt is absorbed by the atmosphere and dissolved in it. Perchlorates can be used to absorb water from the atmosphere and lower the freezing point of water. Occasionally, they occur in very dry deserts.
The water is enough to sustain the metabolism of some groups of organisms. It was not known what effect perchlorates have on the cell.
In order to understand the potential for life on Mars, it's important to find out how the organisms deal with high salt concentrations, because only if they have a good stress response can they take advantage of the salts.
The perchlorate-specific stress response of the yeast Debaryomyces hansenii was compared with commonly known adaptation to salt stress by the research team.
The same signaling pathways, increased energy metabolism and the formation of osmolytes were found to be shared by the stress responses to sodium perchlorate.
Several new stress responses were specifically related to perchlorate. The remodeling of the cell wall is thought to be related to stabilizing the structure and function of the cell. The co-author explained that the stress reactions would be important for presumed life on Mars.
"If we are looking for life on Mars, we have to be open minded, because indigenous Martian microbes are certainly adapted to the environmental conditions on Mars by different biochemical processes that may not occur on Earth," said Dirk Schulze-Makuch. "If we investigate how organisms on Earth deal with the stress factors on Mars, such as perchlorates, we will have the first clues on how life on Mars could cope with the difficult environment."
The Perchloratespecific proteomic stress responses of Debaryomyces hansenii could enable microbial survival on Mars. The DOI is 10.1111/ 1462-2920.16152.
Journal information: Environmental Microbiology
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