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Medina Ferrer F, Rosen MR, Feyhl-Buska J, Russell VV, Sønderholm F, Loyd S, Shapiro R, Stamps BW, Petryshyn V, Demirel-Floyd C, Bailey JV, Johnson HA, Spear JR, Corsetti FA. Potential role for microbial ureolysis in the rapid formation of carbonate tufa mounds. GEOBIOLOGY 2022; 20:79-97. [PMID: 34337850 DOI: 10.1111/gbi.12467] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/23/2021] [Accepted: 07/10/2021] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
Modern carbonate tufa towers in the alkaline (~pH 9.5) Big Soda Lake (BSL), Nevada, exhibit rapid precipitation rates (exceeding 3 cm/year) and host diverse microbial communities. Geochemical indicators reveal that carbonate precipitation is, in part, promoted by the mixing of calcium-rich groundwater and carbonate-rich lake water, such that a microbial role for carbonate precipitation is unknown. Here, we characterize the BSL microbial communities and evaluate their potential effects on carbonate precipitation that may influence fast carbonate precipitation rates of the active tufa mounds of BSL. Small subunit rRNA gene surveys indicate a diverse microbial community living endolithically, in interior voids, and on tufa surfaces. Metagenomic DNA sequencing shows that genes associated with metabolisms that are capable of increasing carbonate saturation (e.g., photosynthesis, ureolysis, and bicarbonate transport) are abundant. Enzyme activity assays revealed that urease and carbonic anhydrase, two microbial enzymes that promote carbonate precipitation, are active in situ in BSL tufa biofilms, and urease also increased calcium carbonate precipitation rates in laboratory incubation analyses. We propose that, although BSL tufas form partially as a result of water mixing, tufa-inhabiting microbiota promote rapid carbonate authigenesis via ureolysis, and potentially via bicarbonate dehydration and CO2 outgassing by carbonic anhydrase. Microbially induced calcium carbonate precipitation in BSL tufas may generate signatures preserved in the carbonate microfabric, such as stromatolitic layers, which could serve as models for developing potential biosignatures on Earth and elsewhere.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fernando Medina Ferrer
- Department of Earth & Environmental Sciences, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
| | - Michael R Rosen
- US Geological Survey, California Water Science Center, Carson City, Nevada, USA
| | - Jayme Feyhl-Buska
- Department of Earth Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, USA
| | - Virginia V Russell
- Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California, USA
| | - Fredrik Sønderholm
- Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Sean Loyd
- Department of Geological Sciences, California State University Fullerton, Fullerton, California, USA
| | | | - Blake W Stamps
- 711th Human Performance Wing, Air Force Research Laboratory, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Dayton, Ohio, USA
- UES, Inc., Dayton, Ohio, USA
| | - Victoria Petryshyn
- Environmental Studies Program, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, USA
| | | | - Jake V Bailey
- Department of Earth & Environmental Sciences, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
| | - Hope A Johnson
- Department of Biological Science, California State University Fullerton, Fullerton, California, USA
| | - John R Spear
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, Colorado, USA
| | - Frank A Corsetti
- Department of Earth Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, USA
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Goodwin A, Papineau D. Biosignatures Associated with Organic Matter in Late Paleoproterozoic Stromatolitic Dolomite and Implications for Martian Carbonates. ASTROBIOLOGY 2022; 22:49-74. [PMID: 34664990 DOI: 10.1089/ast.2021.0010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
The documentation of biosignatures in Precambrian rocks is an important requirement in the search for evidence of life on other ancient planetary surfaces. Three major kinds of biosignatures are crucially important: primary microbial sedimentary textures, diagenetic organomineral assemblages, and stable isotope compositions. This study presents new petrographic, mineralogical, and organic geochemical analyses of biosignatures in dolomitic stromatolites from the Pethei Group (N.W.T., Canada) and the Kasegalik Formation of the Belcher Group (Nunavut, Canada). Both are approximately contemporary late Paleoproterozoic stromatolite-bearing dolomitic units deposited after the Great Oxidation Event. Micro-Raman and optical microscopy are used to identify and characterize possible diagenetic biosignatures, which include close spatial association of diagenetic materials (such as ferric-ferrous oxide and anatase) with disseminated organic matter (OM), dolomitic groundmass textures, and mineralized balls. Many of these petrographic relationships point to the oxidation of OM either biotically or abiotically in association with iron reduction and chemically oscillating reactions. Oxidation of OM in these stromatolites is consistent with the widespread oxidation of biomass during the late Paleoproterozoic Shunga-Francevillian Event. Biosignatures identified in this study are also compared with possible carbonate outcrops on Mars, and thereby contribute a basis for comparison with potential biosignatures in ancient martian terrains. Similarities are drawn between the paleoenvironments of the studied units to the Isidis and Chryse planitia as locations for potential extraterrestrial dolomitic stromatolites.
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Affiliation(s)
- Arthur Goodwin
- Centre for Planetary Sciences, UCL-Birkbeck, London, United Kingdom
| | - Dominic Papineau
- Centre for Planetary Sciences, UCL-Birkbeck, London, United Kingdom
- London Centre for Nanotechnology, University College London, London, United Kingdom
- Department of Earth Sciences, University College London, London, United Kingdom
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Neveu M, Hays LE, Voytek MA, New MH, Schulte MD. The Ladder of Life Detection. ASTROBIOLOGY 2018; 18:1375-1402. [PMID: 29862836 PMCID: PMC6211372 DOI: 10.1089/ast.2017.1773] [Citation(s) in RCA: 89] [Impact Index Per Article: 14.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/06/2017] [Accepted: 03/23/2018] [Indexed: 05/04/2023]
Abstract
We describe the history and features of the Ladder of Life Detection, a tool intended to guide the design of investigations to detect microbial life within the practical constraints of robotic space missions. To build the Ladder, we have drawn from lessons learned from previous attempts at detecting life and derived criteria for a measurement (or suite of measurements) to constitute convincing evidence for indigenous life. We summarize features of life as we know it, how specific they are to life, and how they can be measured, and sort these features in a general sense based on their likelihood of indicating life. Because indigenous life is the hypothesis of last resort in interpreting life-detection measurements, we propose a small but expandable set of decision rules determining whether the abiotic hypothesis is disproved. In light of these rules, we evaluate past and upcoming attempts at life detection. The Ladder of Life Detection is not intended to endorse specific biosignatures or instruments for life-detection measurements, and is by no means a definitive, final product. It is intended as a starting point to stimulate discussion, debate, and further research on the characteristics of life, what constitutes a biosignature, and the means to measure them.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marc Neveu
- NASA Postdoctoral Management Program Fellow, Universities Space Research Association, Columbia, Maryland
- NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC
| | - Lindsay E. Hays
- NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California
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Evidence for early life in Earth's oldest hydrothermal vent precipitates. Nature 2017; 543:60-64. [PMID: 28252057 DOI: 10.1038/nature21377] [Citation(s) in RCA: 185] [Impact Index Per Article: 26.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/12/2016] [Accepted: 01/09/2017] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
Although it is not known when or where life on Earth began, some of the earliest habitable environments may have been submarine-hydrothermal vents. Here we describe putative fossilized microorganisms that are at least 3,770 million and possibly 4,280 million years old in ferruginous sedimentary rocks, interpreted as seafloor-hydrothermal vent-related precipitates, from the Nuvvuagittuq belt in Quebec, Canada. These structures occur as micrometre-scale haematite tubes and filaments with morphologies and mineral assemblages similar to those of filamentous microorganisms from modern hydrothermal vent precipitates and analogous microfossils in younger rocks. The Nuvvuagittuq rocks contain isotopically light carbon in carbonate and carbonaceous material, which occurs as graphitic inclusions in diagenetic carbonate rosettes, apatite blades intergrown among carbonate rosettes and magnetite-haematite granules, and is associated with carbonate in direct contact with the putative microfossils. Collectively, these observations are consistent with an oxidized biomass and provide evidence for biological activity in submarine-hydrothermal environments more than 3,770 million years ago.
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