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The thermal resistance of vegetative cells in the percent RH range of 0.19 to 100 at 60 C was investigated. Staphylococcus aureus was used in the experiment because of the extension of the moisture range that can be examined.
Experiments performed on the heat resistant organism CK 4-6 are described. Its response to dry heat at two temperatures (125 C and 135 C) at eight humidity levels (0.001 percent to 100 percent RH) in a closed can system is studied.
The experiments conducted to determine the heat resistance of Bacillus megaterium ATCC 6458 at 90 and 100 C were completed. Estimates from replicate experiments at eight percent relative humidities (less than 0.001 to 100% RH) for each temperature were computed. A Bacillus cereus strain with high heat resistance was cultured and the resistance determined in phosphate buffer (D sub 121.1 = 2.16 min and z = 8.7 C). The profile of the dry heat resistance of B. megaterium is summarized and the most resistant condition to the three spores (Bacillus subtilis var. niger, ATCC 29669, and Bacillus stearothermophilus, strain 1518) is compared.
Human carried microorganisms, which cannot practically be excluded from human supporting agricultural systems of extra terrestrial stations, are considered. These microorganisms damage the plants on which the people depend for oxygen and food. The inclusion of carefully screened or constructed, but more or less normal, phylloplane and rhizosphere microbial communities is studied.
Dye reaction rapidly identifies alcohol-producing microbial colonies. Method visually detects alcohol-producing micro-organisms, and distinguishes them from other microbial colonies that do not produce alcohol. Method useful for screening mixed microbial populations in environmental samples.
The search for evidence of microbial life in the deep subsurface of Earth has implications for the Mars Rover Sampling Return Missions program. If suitably protected environments can be found on Mars then the instrumentation to detect biomarkers could be used to examine the molecular details. Finding a lipid in Martian soil would represent possibly the simplest test for extant or extinct life. A device that could do a rapid extraction possibly using the supercritical fluid technology under development now with a detection of the carbon content would clearly indicate a sample to be returned.
It is suggested that 'oases' in which life forms may persist on Mars could occur, by analogy with terrestrial cases, in (1) rocks, as known in endolithic microorganisms, (2) polar ice caps, as seen in snow and ice algae, and (3) volcanic regions, as witnessed in the chemoautotrophs which live in ocean-floor hydrothermal vents. Microorganisms, moreover, have been known to survive in salt crystals, and it has even been shown that organisms can metabolize while encrusted in evaporites. Evaporites which may occur on Mars would be able to attenuate UV light, while remaining more transparent to the 400-700 nm radiation useful in photosynthesis. Suggestions are made for the selection of Martian exobiological investigation sites.
Earth's surface temperature constrained microbial evolution, according to Schwartzman et al. (1993). Their hypothesis states that the maximal temperature that extant organisms of a given type tolerate is the surface temperature occurring when that type of organism arose. Schwartzman and his colleagues concluded that the temperature changed from 100 C to 50 C between 3.75 billion years ago (BYA) and 1 BYA. These temperatures are consistent with those derived from oxygen isotope ratios in ancient sediments (Karhu and Epstein 1986, Knauth and Lowe 1978). The 100 C surface temperature they derive for 3.75 BYA is also the same as Earth's surface temperature 4.4 BYA (Kosting and Ackerman 1986). In this article, we address the cause of the delay in surface cooling until 3.75 BYA, and we explore the implications for microbial evolution of a high temperature on early Earth. We propose that three effects of the early heavy bombardment of Earth by asteroids and comets, until 3.8 BYA, could have delayed onset of surface cooling.
The shift in delta-C(13) values between carbonate mud-mounds and coeval adjacent limestone may provide a biomarker to recognize the former presence of microbial life in ancient carbonates.
During the Antarctica 2000 Expedition, sponsored by the Planetary Studies Foundation, meteorites and ice microbiota were collected from the Patriot Hills, and Thiel Mountains of Antarctica and snow samples were at the South Pole. Psychrophilic and psychrotrophic microbiota were obtained from blue ice, cryoconite and ice-bubble systems. Twenty frozen meteorites were collected using aseptic techniques from the blue ice fields near the Moulton Escarpment of the Thiel Mountains (85 S, 94 W) and from the Morris Moraine of the Patriot Hills (80 S, 81 W) Ellsworth Mountains. These ice and meteorite samples are of potential significance to Astrobiology. They may help refine chemical and morphological biomarkers and refine characteristics of microbial life in one of the harshest environments on Earth. We discuss the Antarctica 2000 Expedition and provide preliminary results of the investigation of the meteorites and ice microbiota recovered.
Some freshwater, marine or hotspring beaches have no visible source of primary production, yet beneath the surface is an interstitial photosynthetic microbial community. To assess the significance of this source of organic carbon, we measured in situ carbon fixation rates in an intertidal marine beach through a diurnal cycle. Gross fixation for a transect (99 x 1 m) perpendicular to the shore was approx. 4041 mg C fixed/ day, or approx. 41 mg C fixed/ sq m day. In contrast, an adjacent well-established cyanobacterial (Lyngbya) mat was approx. 12 x as productive (approx. 490 mg C fixed/sq m day). Thus, subsurface sand mats may be an overlooked, yet important, endogenous source of organic carbon for intertidal ecosystems, as well as a sink in the global carbon cycle.
Under an SBIR contract with Marshall Space Flight Center, Micro-Bac International developed a new system for the treatment of wastewater based on the metabolic activity of photorphic bacteria. These microorganisms are now being sold as a liquid product called Mega-Bac TF. It is currently used for septic systems and wastewater ponds, lakes and lagoons to degrade fat, oil, fecal matter and other biologically derived wastes. Potential applications include homes, agriculture, food processors and chemical manufacturing.
Under NASA contracts, McDonnell Douglas developed a microbial load monitor to detect bacterial contamination. Vitek Systems, Inc., a subsidiary, was created to commercialize the product for analyzing body fluids. With the AutoMicrobic System, infections may be treated more quickly. The process involves injecting the fluid into identification cards and screening the reaction. Antibiotic treatments are also suggested. Time in hospital and human error is reduced. There are also possible industrial and environmental applications.
For planetary bodies with surface conditions that are too harsh to permit continuous occupation by life, the deep subsurface offers a potentially stable and habitable niche. For organisms occupying this niche, the spectrum of possible metabolisms must be limited to those which do not include sunlight as an energy source or oxygen as a chemical reagent - generally, low-energy anaerobic oxidation-reduction processes. The quantity of energy released in such processes is critical, because currently understood mechanisms of biological energy conservation indicate that energy is only 'useful' to an organism when it is available at a certain minimum level - the 'biological energy quantum'. The mere existence of a BEQ implies that a significant fraction of the chemical energy present in the environment cannot be exploited by life; similarly, the absolute magnitude of the BEQ must be a key variable in determining the potential viability and distribution of subsurface microbial communities. Laboratory culture studies suggest that organisms require an energy of about -20 kJ/mol to grow. However, we find that hydrogen-utilizing microorganisms in an energy-limited natural ecosystem are active with energy yields as low as -10 kJ/mol. A lower BEQ would mean a significantly expanded range of energetically viable subsurface habitat for life.
Tidal flat and lagoonal dolostones of the Neoproterozoic Draken Formation, Spitsbergen, exhibit excellent preservation of carbonate fabrics, including heavily calcified microfossils. The crust-forming cyanobacterium Polybessurus is preserved locally by carbonate precipitated on and within sheaths in mildly evaporitic upper intertidal to supratidal environments. In contrast, calcified filaments in columnar stromatolites reflect subtidal precipitation. Filament molds in dolomicrites independently document extremely early lithification. The presence of heavily calcified cyanobacteria in Draken and other Proterozoic carbonates constrains potential explanations for the widespread appearance of calcified microorganisms near the Proterozoic-Cambrian boundary. We propose that the rarity of Proterozoic examples principally reflects the abundance and wide distribution of carbonate crystals precipitated on the sea floor or in the water column. Cyanobacterial sheaths would have competed effectively as sites for carbonate nucleation and growth only where calcitic and/or aragonitic nuclei were absent. In this view, the Proterozoic-Cambrian expansion of calcified microfossils primarily reflects the emergence of skeletons as principal agents of carbonate deposition.
Temperature, pressure, and time have been thought to control the smectite-to-illite (S-I) reaction, an important diagenetic process used for petroleum exploration. We demonstrated that microorganisms can promote the S-I reaction by dissolving smectite through reduction of structural Fe(III) at room temperature and 1 atmosphere within 14 days. This reaction typically requires conditions of 300 degrees to 350 degrees C, 100 megapascals, and 4 to 5 months in the absence of microbial activity. These results challenge the conventional concept of the S-I reaction and of reaction kinetic models.
Molecular analyses were carried out on four preflight and six postflight International Space Station (ISS)-associated potable water samples at various stages of purification, storage, and transport, to ascertain their associated microbial diversities and overall microbial burdens. Following DNA extraction, PCR amplification, and molecular cloning procedures, rDNA sequences closely related to pathogenic species of Acidovorax, Afipia, Brevundimonas, Propionibacterium, Serratia, and others were recovered in varying abundance. Retrieval of sequences arising from the iodine (biocide)-reducing Delftia acidovorans in postflight waters is also of concern. Total microbial burdens of ISS potable waters were derived from data generated by an ATP-based enumeration procedure, with results ranging from 0 to 4.9 x 10(4) cells/ml. Regardless of innate biases in sample collection and analysis, such circumstantial evidence for the presence of viable, intact pathogenic cells should not be taken lightly. Implementation of new cultivation approaches and/or viability-based assays are requisite to confirm such an occurrence.
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