This simulated view shows Mars as it might have appeared during the height of a possible ice age in geologically recent time. Credit: NASA |
PI: Karen Junge
Liquid water is essential to life on Earth yet most planets and moons in our solar system have surface temperatures well below the freezing point of pure water. Earth itself may have undergone a series of global glaciations (Snowball Earth events) in its early history. The abundance of icy conditions in our solar system suggests that life in frozen environments may answer questions about the origin, evolution, and ultimate fate of microbial cells and their biosignatures. Bacteria that are growing, metabolically active, and/or surviving in the presence of salty ice and brines may have characteristics that reflect the evolution and nature of primitive life.
Mars is presently cold and dry, but orbital observations have identified flowing liquid water and likely past habitable environments. It’s suggested that salty waters on Mars could host Earth-like life.
The exobiological
research project devises low-temperature liquid-water environments mimicking the known chemistry of brines. The research team measures microbial growth rate, metabolic activity, ability to survive while inactive, and longevity for psychrophiles to reveal proteomic biosignatures for growth, activity, and survival strategies, and understand key molecular responses of life in these environments.
Click
here for the project’s main website, or copy/paste
The research project team includes Co-I
Bonnie Light (UW APL-PSC), Co-I Brook Nunn (UW Genome Sciences), Co-I Jonathan Toner (UW Earth and Space Sciences), Shelly Carpenter (UW APL-PSC), and Marcela Ewert (UW APL-PSC).
Public Outreach
The team connected with the public at science events and in the lab throughout the year. Visitors at Climate Change Weekend at the Pacific Science Center were able to experience a simulated lab to examine ice samples through a microscope while others had the opportunity to visit our lab.
|  Museum visitors prepare for mock microscopy of ice samples at Climate Change Weekend. Credit: Junge | |  An enthusiastic second grader does hands-on learning about centrifuging in our laboratory. Credit: Junge |
AbSciCon 2019
For AbSciCon 2019, Marcela Ewert presented Proteomic Signatures & Cell Viability of Colwellia Psychrerythraea Strain 34H in Supercooled, Frozen, & Equilibrium Sea-Ice Brines. To watch the presentation, click on the link or image below.
AbSciCon is the largest astrobiology conference in the United States organized by the astrobiology community. The theme for 2019 was “Understanding and Enabling the Search for Life on Worlds Near and Far.”
Funding source: NASA grant 80NSSC18K1291