![]() ![]() Jackie Goordial/McGill University, CC BYĭiscovery of microbe-rich groundwater in Antarctica guides search for life in space Some Martian environments have similar features. University Valley has a layer of dry permafrost soil overlaying ice-rich permanently frozen ground. Prototypes for genome sequencing in the field are being developed, but they do not have the sensitivity needed for low biomass samples – yet. In samples with such scarce biomass, we use highly sensitive laboratory methods to detect microbial life, including gene sequencing and visualising cells using microscopic analysis. However, the rovers’ current equipment wouldn’t be able to detect it on Mars. Azua-Bustos’s team go one step further, proposing a “dark microbiome” which contains potentially relic, extinct Earth species.Īzua-Bustos’s team found sophisticated laboratory techniques could detect a dark microbiome in the Atacama Desert’s Martian-like hyper-arid soil samples. To identify them, we require next-generation sequencing need to define. In my field of extreme microbiology, “microbial dark matter” is when the majority of microscopic organisms in a sample have not been isolated and/or characterised. Perseverance: the Mars rover searching for ancient life, and the Aussie scientists who helped build it Traces of life are scarce in the Atacama Desert. This tells us the limits of our detection. Finally, we determine how sensitive tools need to be to detect those biosignatures, on Earth and also Mars. These include organic molecules like lipids, nucleic acids and proteins. Then we need to develop tools to identify the “biosignatures” for life. Finding evidence of life is challenging, given the harsh conditions and the scarcity of microbial life present.įirst, we must define the biological and physical boundaries of life existing (and being detected) in analogue “extreme” environments. In both of these sites, life exists despite extreme pressures. In my team’s case, our Mars analogue sites are the cold and hyper-arid deserts of the Dry Valleys and Windmill Islands in Antarctica. They were able to detect the mineral components of the samples, but were not always able to detect organic molecules. Armando Azua-Bustos/Centro de Astrobiología, CC BYĪzua-Bustos and colleagues found the rovers’ testbed equipment – tools for analysing samples in the field – had limited ability to detect the traces of life we might expect to find on the red planet. Scientists take samples from the Atacama Desert’s arid soil. ![]()
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