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Tait AW, Wilson SA, Tomkins AG, Hamilton JL, Gagen EJ, Holman AI, Grice K, Preston LJ, Paterson DJ, Southam G. Preservation of Terrestrial Microorganisms and Organics Within Alteration Products of Chondritic Meteorites from the Nullarbor Plain, Australia. ASTROBIOLOGY 2022; 22:399-415. [PMID: 35100042 DOI: 10.1089/ast.2020.2387] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
Meteorites that fall to Earth quickly become contaminated with terrestrial microorganisms. These meteorites are out of chemical equilibrium in the environments where they fall, and equilibration promotes formation of low-temperature alteration minerals that can entomb contaminant microorganisms and thus preserve them as microfossils. Given the well-understood chemistry of meteorites and their recent discovery on Mars by rovers, a similarly weathered meteorite on Mars could preserve organic and fossil evidence of a putative past biosphere at the martian surface. Here, we used several techniques to assess the potential of alteration minerals to preserve microfossils and biogenic organics in terrestrially weathered ordinary chondrites from the Nullarbor Plain, Australia. We used acid etching of ordinary chondrites to reveal entombed fungal hyphae, modern biofilms, and diatoms within alteration minerals. We employed synchrotron X-ray fluorescence microscopy of alteration mineral veins to map the distribution of redox-sensitive elements of relevance to chemolithotrophic organisms, such as Mn-cycling bacteria. We assessed the biogenicity of fungal hyphae within alteration veins using a combination of Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy and pyrolysis gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, which showed that alteration minerals sequester and preserve organic molecules at various levels of decomposition. Our combined analyses results show that fossil microorganisms and the organic molecules they produce are preserved within calcite-gypsum admixtures in meteorites. Furthermore, the distributions of redox-sensitive elements (e.g., Mn) within alteration minerals are localized, which qualitatively suggests that climatically or microbially facilitated element mobilization occurred during the meteorite's residency on Earth. If returned as part of a sample suite from the martian surface, ordinary chondrites could preserve similar, recognizable evidence of putative past life and/or environmental change.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alastair W Tait
- School of Earth, Atmosphere and Environment, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
| | - Siobhan A Wilson
- School of Earth, Atmosphere and Environment, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
- Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
| | - Andrew G Tomkins
- School of Earth, Atmosphere and Environment, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
| | - Jessica L Hamilton
- School of Earth, Atmosphere and Environment, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
- Australian Synchrotron, ANSTO, Clayton, Victoria, Australia
| | - Emma J Gagen
- School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Queensland, Australia
- Australian Centre for Ecogenomics, School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Queensland, Australia
| | - Alex I Holman
- Western Australian Organic and Isotope Geochemistry Centre, The Institute for Geoscience Research, School of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia, Australia
| | - Kliti Grice
- Western Australian Organic and Isotope Geochemistry Centre, The Institute for Geoscience Research, School of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia, Australia
| | - Louisa J Preston
- Department of Earth Sciences, Natural History Museum, London, United Kingdom
| | | | - Gordon Southam
- School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Queensland, Australia
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Chan QHS, Stroud R, Martins Z, Yabuta H. Concerns of Organic Contamination for Sample Return Space Missions. SPACE SCIENCE REVIEWS 2020; 216:56. [PMID: 32624626 PMCID: PMC7319412 DOI: 10.1007/s11214-020-00678-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/27/2019] [Accepted: 04/23/2020] [Indexed: 06/11/2023]
Abstract
Analysis of organic matter has been one of the major motivations behind solar system exploration missions. It addresses questions related to the organic inventory of our solar system and its implication for the origin of life on Earth. Sample return missions aim at returning scientifically valuable samples from target celestial bodies to Earth. By analysing the samples with the use of state-of-the-art analytical techniques in laboratories here on Earth, researchers can address extremely complicated aspects of extra-terrestrial organic matter. This level of detailed sample characterisation provides the range and depth in organic analysis that are restricted in spacecraft-based exploration missions, due to the limitations of the on-board in-situ instrumentation capabilities. So far, there are four completed and in-process sample return missions with an explicit mandate to collect organic matter: Stardust and OSIRIS-REx missions of NASA, and Hayabusa and Hayabusa2 missions of JAXA. Regardless of the target body, all sample return missions dedicate to minimise terrestrial organic contamination of the returned samples, by applying various degrees or strategies of organic contamination mitigation methods. Despite the dedicated efforts in the design and execution of contamination control, it is impossible to completely eliminate sources of organic contamination. This paper aims at providing an overview of the successes and lessons learned with regards to the identification of indigenous organic matter of the returned samples vs terrestrial contamination.
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Affiliation(s)
- Queenie Hoi Shan Chan
- Planetary and Space Sciences, School of Physical Sciences, The Open University, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes, MK7 6AA UK
- Present Address: Department of Earth Sciences, Royal Holloway University of London, Egham Surrey, TW20 0EX UK
| | - Rhonda Stroud
- Code 6360, Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, DC 20375 USA
| | - Zita Martins
- Centro de Química Estrutural, Departamento de Engenharia Química, Instituto Superior Técnico (IST), Universidade de Lisboa, Avenida Rovisco Pais 1, 1049-001 Lisbon, Portugal
| | - Hikaru Yabuta
- Department of Earth and Planetary Systems Science, Hiroshima University, 1-3-1 Kagamiyama, Hiroshima, 739-8526 Japan
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Tait AW, Gagen EJ, Wilson SA, Tomkins AG, Southam G. Eukaryotic Colonization of Micrometer-Scale Cracks in Rocks: A "Microfluidics" Experiment Using Naturally Weathered Meteorites from the Nullarbor Plain, Australia. ASTROBIOLOGY 2020; 20:364-374. [PMID: 31873039 DOI: 10.1089/ast.2019.2077] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
The advent of microfluidics has revolutionized the way we understand how microorganisms propagate through microporous spaces. Here, we apply this understanding to the study of how endolithic environmental microorganisms colonize the interiors of sterile rock. The substrates used for our study are stony meteorites from the Nullarbor Plain, Australia; a semiarid limestone karst that provides an ideal setting for preserving meteorites. Periodic flooding of the Nullarbor provides a mechanism by which microorganisms and exogenous nutrients may infiltrate meteorites. Our laboratory experiments show that environmental microorganisms reach depths greater than 400 μm by propagating through existing brecciation, passing through cracks no wider than the diameter of a resident cell (i.e., ∼5 μm). Our observations are consistent with the propagation of these eukaryotic cells via growth and cell division rather than motility. The morphology of the microorganisms changed as a result of propagation through micrometer-scale cracks, as has been observed previously for bacteria on microfluidic chips. It has been suggested that meteorites could have served as preferred habitats for microorganisms on ancient Mars. Based on our results, the depths reached by terrestrial microorganisms within meteorites would be sufficient to mitigate against the harmful effects of ionizing radiation, such as UV light, in Earth's deserts and potentially on Mars, if similar processes of microbial colonization had once been active there. Thus, meteorites landing in ancient lakes on Mars, that later dried out, could have been some of the last inhabited locations on the surface, serving as refugia before the planet's surface became inhospitable. Finally, our observations suggest that terrestrial microorganisms can colonize very fine cracks within meteorites (and potentially spaceships and rovers) on unexpectedly short timescales, with important implications for both recognition of extraterrestrial life in returned geological samples and planetary protection.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alastair W Tait
- School of Earth, Atmosphere and Environment, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
- Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Stirling, Stirling, United Kingdom
| | - Emma J Gagen
- School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Australia
| | - Siobhan A Wilson
- School of Earth, Atmosphere and Environment, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
- Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada
| | - Andrew G Tomkins
- School of Earth, Atmosphere and Environment, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
| | - Gordon Southam
- School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Australia
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Lin L, Husek J, Biswas S, Baumler SM, Adel T, Ng KC, Baker LR, Allen HC. Iron(III) Speciation Observed at Aqueous and Glycerol Surfaces: Vibrational Sum Frequency and X-ray. J Am Chem Soc 2019; 141:13525-13535. [PMID: 31345028 DOI: 10.1021/jacs.9b05231] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Lu Lin
- Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, The Ohio State University, 100 West 18th Avenue, Columbus, Ohio 43210, United States
| | - Jakub Husek
- Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, The Ohio State University, 100 West 18th Avenue, Columbus, Ohio 43210, United States
| | - Somnath Biswas
- Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, The Ohio State University, 100 West 18th Avenue, Columbus, Ohio 43210, United States
| | - Stephen M. Baumler
- Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, The Ohio State University, 100 West 18th Avenue, Columbus, Ohio 43210, United States
| | - Tehseen Adel
- Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, The Ohio State University, 100 West 18th Avenue, Columbus, Ohio 43210, United States
| | - Ka Chon Ng
- Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, The Ohio State University, 100 West 18th Avenue, Columbus, Ohio 43210, United States
| | - L. Robert Baker
- Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, The Ohio State University, 100 West 18th Avenue, Columbus, Ohio 43210, United States
| | - Heather C. Allen
- Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, The Ohio State University, 100 West 18th Avenue, Columbus, Ohio 43210, United States
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