Microbial Morphology and Motility as Biosignatures for Outer Planet Missions
Meaningful motion is an unambiguous biosignature, but because life in the Solar System is most likely to be microbial, the question is whether such motion may be detected effectively on the micrometer scale. Recent results on microbial motility in various Earth environments have provided insight int...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
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Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.
2017
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/109941 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8344-9994 |
| _version_ | 1826211757024083968 |
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| author | Nadeau, Jay Lindensmith, Chris Deming, Jody W. Stocker, Roman Fernandez, Vicente Ignacio |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Nadeau, Jay Lindensmith, Chris Deming, Jody W. Stocker, Roman Fernandez, Vicente Ignacio |
| author_sort | Nadeau, Jay |
| collection | MIT |
| description | Meaningful motion is an unambiguous biosignature, but because life in the Solar System is most likely to be microbial, the question is whether such motion may be detected effectively on the micrometer scale. Recent results on microbial motility in various Earth environments have provided insight into the physics and biology that determine whether and how microorganisms as small as bacteria and archaea swim, under which conditions, and at which speeds. These discoveries have not yet been reviewed in an astrobiological context. This paper discusses these findings in the context of Earth analog environments and environments expected to be encountered in the outer Solar System, particularly the jovian and saturnian moons. We also review the imaging technologies capable of recording motility of submicrometer-sized organisms and discuss how an instrument would interface with several types of sample-collection strategies. Key Words: In situ measurement—Biosignatures—Microbiology—Europa—Ice. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T15:10:57Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/109941 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T15:10:57Z |
| publishDate | 2017 |
| publisher | Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1099412022-10-02T01:12:21Z Microbial Morphology and Motility as Biosignatures for Outer Planet Missions Nadeau, Jay Lindensmith, Chris Deming, Jody W. Stocker, Roman Fernandez, Vicente Ignacio Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Fernandez, Vicente Ignacio Meaningful motion is an unambiguous biosignature, but because life in the Solar System is most likely to be microbial, the question is whether such motion may be detected effectively on the micrometer scale. Recent results on microbial motility in various Earth environments have provided insight into the physics and biology that determine whether and how microorganisms as small as bacteria and archaea swim, under which conditions, and at which speeds. These discoveries have not yet been reviewed in an astrobiological context. This paper discusses these findings in the context of Earth analog environments and environments expected to be encountered in the outer Solar System, particularly the jovian and saturnian moons. We also review the imaging technologies capable of recording motility of submicrometer-sized organisms and discuss how an instrument would interface with several types of sample-collection strategies. Key Words: In situ measurement—Biosignatures—Microbiology—Europa—Ice. 2017-06-16T14:35:21Z 2017-06-16T14:35:21Z 2016-08 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 1531-1074 1557-8070 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/109941 Nadeau, Jay; Lindensmith, Chris; Deming, Jody W.; Fernandez, Vicente I. and Stocker, Roman. “Microbial Morphology and Motility as Biosignatures for Outer Planet Missions.” Astrobiology 16, no. 10 (October 2016): 755–774 ©2012 Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. publishers https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8344-9994 en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.1089/ast.2015.1376 Astrobiology Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ application/pdf Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. Mary Ann Liebert |
| spellingShingle | Nadeau, Jay Lindensmith, Chris Deming, Jody W. Stocker, Roman Fernandez, Vicente Ignacio Microbial Morphology and Motility as Biosignatures for Outer Planet Missions |
| title | Microbial Morphology and Motility as Biosignatures for Outer Planet Missions |
| title_full | Microbial Morphology and Motility as Biosignatures for Outer Planet Missions |
| title_fullStr | Microbial Morphology and Motility as Biosignatures for Outer Planet Missions |
| title_full_unstemmed | Microbial Morphology and Motility as Biosignatures for Outer Planet Missions |
| title_short | Microbial Morphology and Motility as Biosignatures for Outer Planet Missions |
| title_sort | microbial morphology and motility as biosignatures for outer planet missions |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/109941 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8344-9994 |
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