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Iron Ion Particle Radiation Resistance of Dried Colonies of Cryomyces antarcticus Embedded in Martian Regolith Analogues

Among the celestial bodies in the Solar System, Mars currently represents the main target for the search for life beyond Earth. However, its surface is constantly exposed to high doses of cosmic rays (CRs) that may pose a threat to any biological system. For this reason, investigations into the limi...

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Autores principales: Aureli, Lorenzo, Pacelli, Claudia, Cassaro, Alessia, Fujimori, Akira, Moeller, Ralf, Onofri, Silvano
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7761078/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33255166
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/life10120306
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author Aureli, Lorenzo
Pacelli, Claudia
Cassaro, Alessia
Fujimori, Akira
Moeller, Ralf
Onofri, Silvano
author_facet Aureli, Lorenzo
Pacelli, Claudia
Cassaro, Alessia
Fujimori, Akira
Moeller, Ralf
Onofri, Silvano
author_sort Aureli, Lorenzo
collection PubMed
description Among the celestial bodies in the Solar System, Mars currently represents the main target for the search for life beyond Earth. However, its surface is constantly exposed to high doses of cosmic rays (CRs) that may pose a threat to any biological system. For this reason, investigations into the limits of resistance of life to space relevant radiation is fundamental to speculate on the chance of finding extraterrestrial organisms on Mars. In the present work, as part of the STARLIFE project, the responses of dried colonies of the black fungus Cryomyces antarcticus Culture Collection of Fungi from Extreme Environments (CCFEE) 515 to the exposure to accelerated iron (LET: 200 keV/μm) ions, which mimic part of CRs spectrum, were investigated. Samples were exposed to the iron ions up to 1000 Gy in the presence of Martian regolith analogues. Our results showed an extraordinary resistance of the fungus in terms of survival, recovery of metabolic activity and DNA integrity. These experiments give new insights into the survival probability of possible terrestrial-like life forms on the present or past Martian surface and shallow subsurface environments.
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spelling pubmed-77610782020-12-26 Iron Ion Particle Radiation Resistance of Dried Colonies of Cryomyces antarcticus Embedded in Martian Regolith Analogues Aureli, Lorenzo Pacelli, Claudia Cassaro, Alessia Fujimori, Akira Moeller, Ralf Onofri, Silvano Life (Basel) Article Among the celestial bodies in the Solar System, Mars currently represents the main target for the search for life beyond Earth. However, its surface is constantly exposed to high doses of cosmic rays (CRs) that may pose a threat to any biological system. For this reason, investigations into the limits of resistance of life to space relevant radiation is fundamental to speculate on the chance of finding extraterrestrial organisms on Mars. In the present work, as part of the STARLIFE project, the responses of dried colonies of the black fungus Cryomyces antarcticus Culture Collection of Fungi from Extreme Environments (CCFEE) 515 to the exposure to accelerated iron (LET: 200 keV/μm) ions, which mimic part of CRs spectrum, were investigated. Samples were exposed to the iron ions up to 1000 Gy in the presence of Martian regolith analogues. Our results showed an extraordinary resistance of the fungus in terms of survival, recovery of metabolic activity and DNA integrity. These experiments give new insights into the survival probability of possible terrestrial-like life forms on the present or past Martian surface and shallow subsurface environments. MDPI 2020-11-24 /pmc/articles/PMC7761078/ /pubmed/33255166 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/life10120306 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
Aureli, Lorenzo
Pacelli, Claudia
Cassaro, Alessia
Fujimori, Akira
Moeller, Ralf
Onofri, Silvano
Iron Ion Particle Radiation Resistance of Dried Colonies of Cryomyces antarcticus Embedded in Martian Regolith Analogues
title Iron Ion Particle Radiation Resistance of Dried Colonies of Cryomyces antarcticus Embedded in Martian Regolith Analogues
title_full Iron Ion Particle Radiation Resistance of Dried Colonies of Cryomyces antarcticus Embedded in Martian Regolith Analogues
title_fullStr Iron Ion Particle Radiation Resistance of Dried Colonies of Cryomyces antarcticus Embedded in Martian Regolith Analogues
title_full_unstemmed Iron Ion Particle Radiation Resistance of Dried Colonies of Cryomyces antarcticus Embedded in Martian Regolith Analogues
title_short Iron Ion Particle Radiation Resistance of Dried Colonies of Cryomyces antarcticus Embedded in Martian Regolith Analogues
title_sort iron ion particle radiation resistance of dried colonies of cryomyces antarcticus embedded in martian regolith analogues
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7761078/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33255166
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/life10120306
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