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The Responses of the Black Fungus Cryomyces Antarcticus to High Doses of Accelerated Helium Ions Radiation within Martian Regolith Simulants and Their Relevance for Mars

One of the primary current astrobiological goals is to understand the limits of microbial resistance to extraterrestrial conditions. Much attention is paid to ionizing radiation, since it can prevent the preservation and spread of life outside the Earth. The aim of this research was to study the imp...

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Autores principales: Pacelli, Claudia, Cassaro, Alessia, Aureli, Lorenzo, Moeller, Ralf, Fujimori, Akira, Onofri, Silvano
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7459982/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32752063
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/life10080130
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author Pacelli, Claudia
Cassaro, Alessia
Aureli, Lorenzo
Moeller, Ralf
Fujimori, Akira
Onofri, Silvano
author_facet Pacelli, Claudia
Cassaro, Alessia
Aureli, Lorenzo
Moeller, Ralf
Fujimori, Akira
Onofri, Silvano
author_sort Pacelli, Claudia
collection PubMed
description One of the primary current astrobiological goals is to understand the limits of microbial resistance to extraterrestrial conditions. Much attention is paid to ionizing radiation, since it can prevent the preservation and spread of life outside the Earth. The aim of this research was to study the impact of accelerated He ions (150 MeV/n, up to 1 kGy) as a component of the galactic cosmic rays on the black fungus C. antarcticus when mixed with Antarctic sandstones—the substratum of its natural habitat—and two Martian regolith simulants, which mimics two different evolutionary stages of Mars. The high dose of 1 kGy was used to assess the effect of dose accumulation in dormant cells within minerals, under long-term irradiation estimated on a geological time scale. The data obtained suggests that viable Earth-like microorganisms can be preserved in the dormant state in the near-surface scenario for approximately 322.000 and 110.000 Earth years within Martian regolith that mimic early and present Mars environmental conditions, respectively. In addition, the results of the study indicate the possibility of maintaining traces within regolith, as demonstrated by the identification of melanin pigments through UltraViolet-visible (UV-vis) spectrophotometric approach.
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spelling pubmed-74599822020-09-02 The Responses of the Black Fungus Cryomyces Antarcticus to High Doses of Accelerated Helium Ions Radiation within Martian Regolith Simulants and Their Relevance for Mars Pacelli, Claudia Cassaro, Alessia Aureli, Lorenzo Moeller, Ralf Fujimori, Akira Onofri, Silvano Life (Basel) Article One of the primary current astrobiological goals is to understand the limits of microbial resistance to extraterrestrial conditions. Much attention is paid to ionizing radiation, since it can prevent the preservation and spread of life outside the Earth. The aim of this research was to study the impact of accelerated He ions (150 MeV/n, up to 1 kGy) as a component of the galactic cosmic rays on the black fungus C. antarcticus when mixed with Antarctic sandstones—the substratum of its natural habitat—and two Martian regolith simulants, which mimics two different evolutionary stages of Mars. The high dose of 1 kGy was used to assess the effect of dose accumulation in dormant cells within minerals, under long-term irradiation estimated on a geological time scale. The data obtained suggests that viable Earth-like microorganisms can be preserved in the dormant state in the near-surface scenario for approximately 322.000 and 110.000 Earth years within Martian regolith that mimic early and present Mars environmental conditions, respectively. In addition, the results of the study indicate the possibility of maintaining traces within regolith, as demonstrated by the identification of melanin pigments through UltraViolet-visible (UV-vis) spectrophotometric approach. MDPI 2020-07-31 /pmc/articles/PMC7459982/ /pubmed/32752063 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/life10080130 Text en © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Pacelli, Claudia
Cassaro, Alessia
Aureli, Lorenzo
Moeller, Ralf
Fujimori, Akira
Onofri, Silvano
The Responses of the Black Fungus Cryomyces Antarcticus to High Doses of Accelerated Helium Ions Radiation within Martian Regolith Simulants and Their Relevance for Mars
title The Responses of the Black Fungus Cryomyces Antarcticus to High Doses of Accelerated Helium Ions Radiation within Martian Regolith Simulants and Their Relevance for Mars
title_full The Responses of the Black Fungus Cryomyces Antarcticus to High Doses of Accelerated Helium Ions Radiation within Martian Regolith Simulants and Their Relevance for Mars
title_fullStr The Responses of the Black Fungus Cryomyces Antarcticus to High Doses of Accelerated Helium Ions Radiation within Martian Regolith Simulants and Their Relevance for Mars
title_full_unstemmed The Responses of the Black Fungus Cryomyces Antarcticus to High Doses of Accelerated Helium Ions Radiation within Martian Regolith Simulants and Their Relevance for Mars
title_short The Responses of the Black Fungus Cryomyces Antarcticus to High Doses of Accelerated Helium Ions Radiation within Martian Regolith Simulants and Their Relevance for Mars
title_sort responses of the black fungus cryomyces antarcticus to high doses of accelerated helium ions radiation within martian regolith simulants and their relevance for mars
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7459982/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32752063
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/life10080130
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