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Poison-Based Bacteria Redefines Life As We Know It


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#1 TheDR

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Posted 02 December 2010 - 22:04

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Arsenic is an element that is deadly to most living creatures, but bacteria living in California's Lake Mono thrive on it. Today NASA explains how those poison-eating organisms are changing the way we search for extraterrestrial life.

News of an arsenic-eating bacteria residing in alkaline Lake Mono first came two years ago. As reported by the BBC, researchers discovered a bacterium that utilizes arsenic in photosynthesis instead of water to transform carbon dioxide into food.

So what is different about NASA's new finding?

Dr. Felisa Wolfe-Simon of the US Geological Survey in Menlo Park says that the microbe, known as GFAJ-1, isn't simply substituting arsenic for water. It's substituting arsenic for phosphorus, one of the fundamental building blocks of life.

"We know that some microbes can breathe arsenic, but what we've found is a microbe doing something new — building parts of itself out of arsenic," said Felisa Wolfe-Simon, a NASA Astrobiology Research Fellow in residence at the U.S. Geological Survey in Menlo Park, Calif., and the research team's lead scientist. "If something here on Earth can do something so unexpected, what else can life do that we haven't seen yet?"

During the press conference, Wolfe-Simon explained that the reason arsenic is so toxic to normal life, is that it's so close to phosphorus our bodies can't tell them apart.

"Nothing should have grown," she said of the environment of Lake Mono. Yet it did. "It has solved the challenge of being alive in a very different way than we knew of."

The arsenic is associated specifically with a band of genomic DNA. It's inside the cell. It's part of the microbe, taking the place of phosphorus.

Arizona State University's Dr. James Elser explained that the existence of an organism that does without phosphorus has far-reaching possibilities. "It's very exciting to think about the possibilities of a clever organism that's evolved beyond using phosphorus," said Elser after explaining how vital the element is to life on Earth. He marveled over the possible uses for such an organism, including water treatment, bio-energy production, and even recovering phosphorus used in other processes.

Dr. Steven Benner of the Foundation for Applied Molecular Evolution put things in layman's terms. Using a steel chain to represent a phosphorus bio-polymer, he likened arsenic to a tinfoil link. When a link is broken it searches for a replacement, and the chain could be confused by the similar structure of arsenic. He called the element a demon wolf, tricking organisms into taking it it.

"Remember, the weakness of the link is a weakness measured at room temperature...in water," Benner said. There are places in our own solar system where the conditions are very different that could support another sort of life entirely, as is the case with Lake Mono and GFAJ-1.

NASA astrobiologist Dr. Pamela Conrad spoke next. She develops habitability metrics for alien worlds, and she's delighted by the discovery, as it will make her change the way she defines those metrics. "The implication is that we still don't know everything there is to know about what might make a habitable environment on another planet. We have to increasingly broaden our perspective." Conrad said that while arsenic might not be a essential element life, it is a tolerable one, and that opens up the potential for other tolerable elements.

Dr. Felisa Wolfe-Simon closed the conference by saying this wasn't about arsenic and wasn't about Mono Lake. "It's about thinking about life in a planetary concept and asking questions - simple questions, with a simple experimental design."


Very interesting stuff 8|
It redefines lots of thoughts on alien life, it will be cool to see what develops from this.
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#2 Soul

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Posted 02 December 2010 - 22:37

Oh my, how fascinating 8|. I too can't wait to see what develops from this discovery.
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 Insomniac!, on 16 Sep 2008, 20:12, said:

Soul you scare the hell out of me, more so than Lizzie.

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#3 Wizard

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Posted 02 December 2010 - 22:42

View PostSoul, on 2 Dec 2010, 22:37, said:

I too can't wait to see what develops from this discovery.

Probably new form or chemical or biological weaponry 8|

#4 Ion Cannon!

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Posted 03 December 2010 - 01:01

It's very interesting, I always wondered why some scientists seemed to think the principles of life on earth MUST therefore be the same on other planets. It's always made alot more sense to me that different organisms in different environments/planets - wouldn't neccessarily have the same principles to form life.
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#5 Destiny

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Posted 03 December 2010 - 01:13

If there's arsenic-based lifeforms, silicon-based lifeforms won't be that much of science fiction 8|!
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#6 Raven

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Posted 03 December 2010 - 02:48

Very interesting.

Well, this might mean that the next gen unmanned space explorers would be equipped to find non-carbon based life forms.

#7 TheDR

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Posted 03 December 2010 - 12:11

View PostIon Cannon!, on 3 Dec 2010, 1:01, said:

It's very interesting, I always wondered why some scientists seemed to think the principles of life on earth MUST therefore be the same on other planets. It's always made alot more sense to me that different organisms in different environments/planets - wouldn't neccessarily have the same principles to form life.

Well they have thought about it but just haven't got any evidence so it was just a theory. It was essentially science fiction until they discovered this bacteria. I don't think they were being stubborn, i think they really just believed it to be truly fictional.
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#8 Chyros

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Posted 03 December 2010 - 23:45

To be honest, from a chemical-biological point of view, it's less peculiar than most bacteria.
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#9 Areze

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Posted 04 December 2010 - 00:56

View PostChyros, on 3 Dec 2010, 17:45, said:

To be honest, from a chemical-biological point of view, it's less peculiar than most bacteria.


True. When there are lifeforms here on Earth that consider Oxygen, a fundament for us and most complex life to be a deadly poison, I'll have a hard time raising an eyebrow at the foibles of bacteria and their literal ubiquitousness on this planet and most like many, many others.
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#10 Chyros

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Posted 04 December 2010 - 02:16

View PostAreze, on 4 Dec 2010, 2:56, said:

View PostChyros, on 3 Dec 2010, 17:45, said:

To be honest, from a chemical-biological point of view, it's less peculiar than most bacteria.


True. When there are lifeforms here on Earth that consider Oxygen, a fundament for us and most complex life to be a deadly poison, I'll have a hard time raising an eyebrow at the foibles of bacteria and their literal ubiquitousness on this planet and most like many, many others.
Exactly, I was hinting at exactly that tbh. Humans and other organisms that depend on oxygen are very weird to begin with since from a chemical point of view you'd expect it to be extremely toxic, as, as you pointed out, it is to many organisms (in fact heavy-duty pest eradication such as huge cockroach infestations that cannot be removed by any other means happens with oxygen). Arsenic on the other hand is just poisonous to us because it happens to react with some sulphur bonds in a few random proteins, while it's actually chemically similar to phosphorus which is also a pnicogenic element on which much of it is based, i.e. arsenic isn't that big of a chance from our own cell structure.

Edited by Chyros, 04 December 2010 - 02:25.

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#11 Hobbesy

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Posted 04 December 2010 - 05:29

View PostAreze, on 3 Dec 2010, 19:56, said:

True. When there are lifeforms here on Earth that consider Oxygen, a fundament for us and most complex life to be a deadly poison, I'll have a hard time raising an eyebrow at the foibles of bacteria and their literal ubiquitousness on this planet and most like many, many others.

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Dr. Felisa Wolfe-Simon of the US Geological Survey in Menlo Park says that the microbe, known as GFAJ-1, isn't simply substituting arsenic for water. It's substituting arsenic for phosphorus, one of the fundamental building blocks of life.


It's not just using arsenic to live, it IS MADE OF arsenic. I'd personally like to think the very fact that this bacteria redefines everything known about how life can form is pretty damn important.

That said, NASA has still failed to deliver.

Edited by Hobbesy, 04 December 2010 - 05:39.


#12 NergiZed

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Posted 04 December 2010 - 05:38

Ja, saw this, pretty fukken incredible, but I'm sure there's plenty of weird forms of life on earth that we haven't discovered yet and in all honesty.

Edited by NergiZed, 04 December 2010 - 05:41.


#13 Chyros

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Posted 04 December 2010 - 10:20

View PostHobbesy, on 4 Dec 2010, 7:29, said:

View PostAreze, on 3 Dec 2010, 19:56, said:

True. When there are lifeforms here on Earth that consider Oxygen, a fundament for us and most complex life to be a deadly poison, I'll have a hard time raising an eyebrow at the foibles of bacteria and their literal ubiquitousness on this planet and most like many, many others.

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Dr. Felisa Wolfe-Simon of the US Geological Survey in Menlo Park says that the microbe, known as GFAJ-1, isn't simply substituting arsenic for water. It's substituting arsenic for phosphorus, one of the fundamental building blocks of life.


It's not just using arsenic to live, it IS MADE OF arsenic. I'd personally like to think the very fact that this bacteria redefines everything known about how life can form is pretty damn important.
Saying that you didn't expect something like this is like saying you're amazed there are phosphorus-based lifeforms when there are nitrogen-based ones around.
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#14 Ghostrider

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Posted 04 December 2010 - 18:30

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As reported by the BBC, researchers discovered a bacterium that utilizes arsenic in photosynthesis instead of water to transform carbon dioxide into food.

^^ This is pretty significant. It means if you breed these bacteria to a large extent they'll take CO2 out of the atmosphere using arsenic instead of water.

The atmospheres of other planets is almost entirely CO2 (in a much more stable state), but there is very little water. If there is arsenic, however, you could introduce these bacteria in large quantities, and they'll begin taking CO2 out of the atmosphere.
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#15 Chyros

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Posted 04 December 2010 - 20:47

I think you can guess where the big "IF" is :P .
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