Survival of an Antarctic cyanobacterial mat under Martian conditions

Autor: Irene Martin-Andres, Jesús Sobrado, Erika Cavalcante, Antonio Quesada
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2024
Předmět:
Zdroj: Frontiers in Microbiology, Vol 15 (2024)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 1664-302X
DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2024.1350457
Popis: Antarctica is one of the most outstanding analogs of Mars, and cyanobacterial mats are considered one of the most resilient biological consortia. The purpose of this study is to find out the effect of the Martian conditions on an Antarctic cyanobacterial mat. We exposed an Antarctic microbial mat to Martian conditions in a simulating chamber (MARTE) for 15 d and investigated the variations in the consortium by the use of 16S rRNA gene expression as an indicator of the biological activity. Metabarcoding using the V3-V4 regions of the 16S rRNA gene was used to determine the succession of the active members of the microbial consortium during the experiment. The results showed that the microbial mat, far from collapsing, can survive the stringent conditions in the simulating chamber. Different behaviors were displayed depending on the metabolic capabilities and physiological characteristics of every taxon. The main conclusion is that the Martian conditions did not impair growth in some of the groups, and thus, the investigated Antarctic community would be able to survive in a Martian environment at least during the short experimental period, although elements of the community were affected in different ways.
Databáze: Directory of Open Access Journals