* Astronomy

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extreme lifeform

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Extreme lifeforms

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RE: extreme lifeform

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Arsenic-eating microbe may redefine chemistry of life

A bacterium found in the arsenic-filled waters of a Californian lake is poised to overturn scientists' understanding of the biochemistry of living organisms. The microbe seems to be able to replace phosphorus with arsenic in some of its basic cellular processes - suggesting the possibility of a biochemistry very different from the one we know, which could be used by organisms in past or present extreme environments on Earth, or even on other planets.
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Title: Did nature also choose arsenic?
Authors: Wolfe-Simon, Felisa; Davies, Paul C. W.; Anbar, Ariel D.

All known life requires phosphorus (P) in the form of inorganic phosphate (PO4 ^3- or Pi) and phosphate-containing organic molecules. Pi serves as the backbone of the nucleic acids that constitute genetic material and as the major repository of chemical energy for metabolism in polyphosphate bonds. Arsenic (As) lies directly below P on the periodic table and so the two elements share many chemical properties, although their chemistries are sufficiently dissimilar that As cannot directly replace P in modern biochemistry. Arsenic is toxic because As and P are similar enough that organisms attempt this substitution. We hypothesise that ancient biochemical systems, analogous to but distinct from those known today, could have utilised arsenate in the equivalent biological role as phosphate. Organisms utilising such 'weird life' biochemical pathways may have supported a 'shadow biosphere' at the time of the origin and early evolution of life on Earth or on other planets. Such organisms may even persist on Earth today, undetected, in unusual niches.

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Deinococcus radiodurans

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Extreme lifeform

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First oxygen-free animals found

Scientists have found the first animals that can survive and reproduce entirely without oxygen, deep on the floor of the Mediterranean Sea.
The team, led by Roberto Danovaro from Marche Polytechnic University in Ancona, Italy, found three new species from the Loricifera group.
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Microbes thrive in harsh, Mars-like lakes

Life not only survives but thrives in Australian lakes where conditions may be as harsh as those on ancient Mars, a new DNA analysis suggests.
Minerals on Mars studied by the NASA rovers suggest water once flowed on the planet's surface, but was very salty and acidic, raising doubts about whether it could have supported life.
But in 2007, Melanie Mormile of Missouri University of Science and Technology in Rolla and colleagues cultured a bacterium from water sampled from one of several salty, acidic lakes in Western Australia.
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Red Sea Urchins Discovered to Be One of Earth's Oldest Animals

4 Nov 2003

A new study has concluded that the red sea urchin, a small spiny invertebrate that lives in shallow coastal waters, is among the longest living animals on Earth - they can live to be 100 years old, and some may reach 200 years or more in good health with few signs of age.
In other words, an individual red sea urchin that hatched on the day in 1805 that Lewis and Clark arrived in Oregon may still be thriving - and even breeding. The research was just published in a professional journal, the U.S. Fishery Bulletin, by scientists from Oregon State University and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
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The red sea urchin found in the shallow waters of the Pacific Ocean is one of the Earth's longest-living animals.
The small, spiny creature can last for more than 200 years with few signs of age-related disease, a US research team from Oregon and California has found.
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