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Subsurface Microbial Habitats in an Extreme Desert Mars-Analog Environment

Sediments in the hyper-arid core of the Atacama Desert are a terrestrial analog to Mars regolith. Understanding the distribution and drivers of microbial life in the sediment may give critical clues on how to search for biosignatures on Mars. Here, we identify the spatial distribution of highly spec...

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Autores principales: Warren-Rhodes, Kimberley A., Lee, Kevin C., Archer, Stephen D. J., Cabrol, Nathalie, Ng-Boyle, Linda, Wettergreen, David, Zacny, Kris, Pointing, Stephen B.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6403490/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30873126
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2019.00069
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author Warren-Rhodes, Kimberley A.
Lee, Kevin C.
Archer, Stephen D. J.
Cabrol, Nathalie
Ng-Boyle, Linda
Wettergreen, David
Zacny, Kris
Pointing, Stephen B.
author_facet Warren-Rhodes, Kimberley A.
Lee, Kevin C.
Archer, Stephen D. J.
Cabrol, Nathalie
Ng-Boyle, Linda
Wettergreen, David
Zacny, Kris
Pointing, Stephen B.
author_sort Warren-Rhodes, Kimberley A.
collection PubMed
description Sediments in the hyper-arid core of the Atacama Desert are a terrestrial analog to Mars regolith. Understanding the distribution and drivers of microbial life in the sediment may give critical clues on how to search for biosignatures on Mars. Here, we identify the spatial distribution of highly specialized bacterial communities in previously unexplored depth horizons of subsurface sediments to a depth of 800 mm. We deployed an autonomous rover in a mission-relevant Martian drilling scenario with manual sample validation. Subsurface communities were delineated by depth related to sediment moisture. Geochemical analysis indicated soluble salts and minerology that influenced water bio-availability, particularly in deeper sediments. Colonization was also patchy and uncolonized sediment was associated with indicators of extreme osmotic challenge. The study identifies linkage between biocomplexity, moisture and geochemistry in Mars-like sediments at the limit of habitability and demonstrates feasibility of the rover-mounted drill for future Mars sample recovery.
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spelling pubmed-64034902019-03-14 Subsurface Microbial Habitats in an Extreme Desert Mars-Analog Environment Warren-Rhodes, Kimberley A. Lee, Kevin C. Archer, Stephen D. J. Cabrol, Nathalie Ng-Boyle, Linda Wettergreen, David Zacny, Kris Pointing, Stephen B. Front Microbiol Microbiology Sediments in the hyper-arid core of the Atacama Desert are a terrestrial analog to Mars regolith. Understanding the distribution and drivers of microbial life in the sediment may give critical clues on how to search for biosignatures on Mars. Here, we identify the spatial distribution of highly specialized bacterial communities in previously unexplored depth horizons of subsurface sediments to a depth of 800 mm. We deployed an autonomous rover in a mission-relevant Martian drilling scenario with manual sample validation. Subsurface communities were delineated by depth related to sediment moisture. Geochemical analysis indicated soluble salts and minerology that influenced water bio-availability, particularly in deeper sediments. Colonization was also patchy and uncolonized sediment was associated with indicators of extreme osmotic challenge. The study identifies linkage between biocomplexity, moisture and geochemistry in Mars-like sediments at the limit of habitability and demonstrates feasibility of the rover-mounted drill for future Mars sample recovery. Frontiers Media S.A. 2019-02-28 /pmc/articles/PMC6403490/ /pubmed/30873126 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2019.00069 Text en Copyright © 2019 Warren-Rhodes, Lee, Archer, Cabrol, Ng-Boyle, Wettergreen, Zacny, Pointing and the NASA Life in the Atacama Project Team. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Microbiology
Warren-Rhodes, Kimberley A.
Lee, Kevin C.
Archer, Stephen D. J.
Cabrol, Nathalie
Ng-Boyle, Linda
Wettergreen, David
Zacny, Kris
Pointing, Stephen B.
Subsurface Microbial Habitats in an Extreme Desert Mars-Analog Environment
title Subsurface Microbial Habitats in an Extreme Desert Mars-Analog Environment
title_full Subsurface Microbial Habitats in an Extreme Desert Mars-Analog Environment
title_fullStr Subsurface Microbial Habitats in an Extreme Desert Mars-Analog Environment
title_full_unstemmed Subsurface Microbial Habitats in an Extreme Desert Mars-Analog Environment
title_short Subsurface Microbial Habitats in an Extreme Desert Mars-Analog Environment
title_sort subsurface microbial habitats in an extreme desert mars-analog environment
topic Microbiology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6403490/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30873126
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2019.00069
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